Quest for the Jewels of Destruction
by Prince Firestorm
Summary: Twilight and the gang set off to lands far beyond Equestria to recover the jewels of destruction. What awaits for her and her friends as they embark on this quest? Adventure, Action, Mystery, Deception, Romance, and much more! Sequal to Old Enemies Read and review rated M for sexual content, mature humor, violence and gore
1. The Quest Begins!

"Are you sure about your decision brother?" Celestia asked her younger brother Firestorm who kneeled before her throne.

"I am sure sister, it is not just for the safety of Equestria, but for the safety of the entire world" Firestorm said with a grim look on his face. "I will require your fastest ship and a decent crew with a friend of mine in charge" he asked his sister.

"Very well, your request shall be granted, you are dismissed" she said waving him away with her hoof.

Meanwhile in Ponyville, Twilight was having a hay sandwich with Spike when she heard a knock at the door. "I'll get it" Twilight said as she sat down her sandwich on the table in front of her. Spike was about to reach for it but she used her magic to smack his hand with a nearby book, causing him to mumble something to himself. Twilight opened the door to find Rarity standing there, pacing back and forth with a nervous look on her face. "Hey Rarity, is everything ok?" Twilight asked concerned.

"Twilight, you haven't seen Sweetiebell around anywhere have you? She and I got into an argument and she ran off and now I can't find her! Oh if something had happened to her I would be devastated" Rarity said with parts of her mane sticking up from the stress.

"Have you tried the clubhouse she, Applebloom and Scootaloo hang out in?" Twilight suggested.

"You mean I have to go through the icky woods all by myself?" Rarity said with an eye twitching.

"Tell you what, how would you feel if I went with you?" Twilight said softly.

"I would feel a bit better" she sniffled as Twilight went inside and ate the rest of her sandwich and ran back out to her friend. "Alright, let's find Sweetiebell!" Rarity said with a hoof in the air as she and Twilight walked towards Sweet Apple Acers to find Rarity's little sister. After a bit of walking, they reached the edge of the forest made up apple trees.

"Come on Rarity, I think their club house is just through here" Twilight said as she led the way into the woods. "Hey Rarity, what were you two fighting over anyway?" Twilight asked.

"Well I think she said something about me being over dramatic over little things, after she spilled needles all in my carpet, and they took FOREVER to find and pick up. So after that I gave her a good talking to and she said I was over reacting! Then of all the things to say, she called me trampy! ME, TRAMPY! Can you believe it?" Rarity said in a loud voice.

"Gee, I don't even know why she would think that" Twilight said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"I know right! It's unbelievable, and to where she learned such language is beyond me" Rarity said flipping her mane. After a few more minutes, they came to the Cutie Mark Crusaders club house. Twilight examined the recently painted walls and the sturdily made ram that led up to the main building area.

"You better let me go up first, if Sweetiebell sees you she might run off" Twilight said causing Rarity to huff and sit down on a nearby stump, which she quickly got off of when she felt something crawling on her plot. Twilight climbed the walkway and peered inside the clubhouse to see several posters on the wall, a map of Ponyville, some Rainbowdash stuff in the corner and Scootaloo and Applebloom sitting in the floor talking about something. "Hey girls, have you seen Sweetiebell recently?" she asked the two fillies that turned their heads towards her.

"Oh howdy Twilight" Applebloom spoke, "she passed through awhile ago, said she had to go to Dead Pon's Drop to think about something, she seemed mighty upset for some reason" she said looking at Scootaloo.

"Why, did something happen?" Scootaloo asked standing up.

"She and Rarity had a fight and now we are looking for her so they can make up" Twilight said as the two little fillies came closer to her.

"I think we should come along to, she is our friend after all" Applebloom said as she and Scootaloo nodded to each other. "Alrighty then! Off to Dead Pony's Drop!" Applebloom said as she and Scootaloo high hoofed.

Meanwhile, Firestorm was making his way towards Ponyville through the air when he glanced down to see a little white dot sitting near the edge of a cliff. He stopped mid air and looked down at it to see it was a sad Sweetiebell. He looked across the field of apple trees to see Ponyville and then he looked back down at Sweetiebell. "I think I can spare some time to see what is wrong" he said to himself as he landed soundlessly behind the little unicorn.

"This sucks" Sweetiebell said as she threw a rock over the edge of the steep cliff.

"That isn't safe you know" Firestorm said causing Sweetiebell to jump. The little unicorn turned her head to see the smiling face of Firestorm who towered over her. "What seems to be the problem young one?" he asked as he sat down on the grass beside her.

"It's nothing your highness" Sweetiebell said with her ears drooped.

"Come on, you can tell me, I was your age to once" he said nudging her.

"It's just my older sister Rarity" she sighed.

"Older sisters, mine used to drive me nuts, like one time they even put me in a dress!" he laughed.

"It's not that she made me wear something embarrassing, at least not this time, she and I got in a fight and now I think she is mad at me" she sighed.

"Come on, she has probably already gotten over it, and what was it about any?" he asked as she told him about her over reacting to everything and that she called her a tramp. "Whoa, that sounds bad, but even though all of those things are true, you shouldn't have said that to her. Personally, I think you both are in the wrong on this one" he said to her.

"But she started it!" Sweetiebell objected.

"Well then you shouldn't have continued it" Firestorm spoke softly. "No matter how crazy our siblings may seem, they are our family. You only get one family and we need to make the very best of the time we have with them and love one another."

"You know what, I think you may be right, I am gonna go and apologize to Rarity for being mean to her" Sweetiebell said as she heard hoof steps behind her. She turned to see her older sister standing there as well as Scootaloo, Applebloom and Twilight.

"Oh Sweetiebell! I am so happy I found you!" Rarity sighed as she looked to see her sister standing in front of her with a look of confusion on her face.

"You aren't mad at me?" she asked.

"Well I am a bit disappointed at the way you acted but I could never be mad at you little sister" Rarity smiled as Sweetiebell's friends ran over to her and hugged her telling her how worried they were about her.

"I am sorry for being so mean to you big sis, can you forgive me?" Sweetiebell asked her sister and was soon answered by a hug. Her sister nodded and Scootaloo poked her side to get her attention.

"Now that we got all that mushy stuff out of the way, let's get back to trying to earn our cutie marks!" she said as all three of them high hoofed and ran off towards town. After this Twilight looked over to see Firestorm looking out at the horizon, seeing he was deep in thought.

"Firestorm, what are you doing here? You aren't scheduled to visit for another month" she said walking over to the large alicorn, followed by Rarity.

"I was actually going to town to find you, you see Celestia has given me a special task and I needed the ponies I can trust most to help" he said turning to the two unicorns.

"What kind of assignment your majesty?" rarity asked intrigued.

"Pack your bags girls, and tell the rest of the gang to same, we are all going on a long trip" he smiled.

"A trip? To where?" asked Twilight.

"To find the rest of the jewels of destruction in lands far beyond the Sea of Eternity" he said as the two of them looked at each other. "That's right ladies, get ready to set sail tomorrow morning!" he laughed as he flew up into the clouds.


	2. Set Sail!

Twilight had her suitcase packed as well as a saddle bag across her back. "Ok Spike, there is no telling how long I am going to be gone, so you take care of the place until I get back ok?" Twilight said with uneasiness in her voice.

"Be careful Twilight" Spike said hugging her guardian's leg. She smiled and carried her suitcase outside to meet her friends outside of her house. Each of them had packed their things and were ready to go. Rainbowdash had a square Wonderbolts suitcase in front of her, and a light blue saddle bag on her back. Applejack wore her light green saddle bag the apple buckle on it, and she had a large sack sitting in front of her with "Applejack knitted across the front of it. Pinkie bounced up and down with her pink saddle bag with a cupcake buckle on it, and a suitcase shaped like a cupcake in front of her. Fluttershy had her green saddle bag with its butterfly shaped buckle on it, and a light green suitcase with some bunny stickers on it in front of her with Angel on her back. Rarity had multiple suitcases and no saddle bag.

"Alright girls, let's make our way to the boat!" Twilight said with a hoof in the air.

"Where are the docks anyway?" Rainbowdash asked.

"To the east of here in on the Sea Horse Bay" Twilight answered as she made her suitcase hover over her head and the others picked up theirs with either magic or their teeth. The group followed the road out of Ponyville with the entire town there to see them off, except the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were nowhere to be found.

"Take care of things while I am gone Big Mac, ok?" Applejack said as she hugged her brother who was close to crying.

"E-EYUP" he sniffled as she and the others trotted off into the distance. Any of ya'll ever been out to sea before?" Applejack asked trying to break the silence as they walked across the dirt road.

"I brought in some storm clouds there once, but I have never actually been up close to it" Rainbowdash said with her suitcase in her mouth.

"Oh this is so exciting, getting to go to different lands; I wonder what creatures we will find there?" Fluttershy said softly with Angel still on her back. They soon came past a tree line and looked down to see a small town sitting on the edge of the deep blue, circular bay with several ships docked at the shipyard.

"It's so beautiful" Rarity said in awe as the others began to walk down towards the little town. They walked through the wooden gates of the small community in a fish market. Twilight looked down into the docks to see a large ship with metal trim around the red wooden body. On the front was a carving of a sea horse holding a conch shell in her hoofs that were raised up. The large sail were drawn up and several large stallions walked along the deck. Twilight and her friends walked around the ship to see it was quite large as it swayed and creaked in the water. The large wooden ship had one large area in the back of the ship that was the captain's quarters.

"You finally made it" a familiar voice said from beside a box next to them. They turned to see Blitz leaning against the crate with his goggles over his eyes and a smile on his face.

"Blitz, what are you doing?" Rainbowdash asked her older brother. "I saw you asleep on the couch when I left this morning, how did you get here before us?" she said confused.

"Firestorm asked me to come here, so I did" he shrugged as he raised his ear to the sound of some pony walking towards him. He smiled as the others looked to see Firestorm walking towards them with some pony they didn't recognize beside him, a Pegasus. He had a white coat, a black mane that had a crew cut to it. He had a little goatee around his mouth which held a cigarette in it. His cutie mark was naval compass and he was a few inches shorter then Firestorm, and he had bright green eyes.

"Good morning every pony" Firestorm said as Toby slithered out of his tail and up hit back until it wrapped around his horn and eyed Angel and hissed. "No Toby, you can't eat that one!" Firestorm said causing the cobra to droop his head. "Fluttershy I think it would be best if Angel stayed behind ok?" he said.

"Um, ok" Fluttershy said as she asked Angel to head home and that he was in charge while she was gone. The little white bunny saluted and hopped off back to Ponyville. The pony beside Firestorm cleared his throat.

"Oh sorry, every pony, this will be the captain of the ship on this journey, he is a friend of mine, he was in charge of the ship when I went to Tuskany, and his name is Pathfinder" Firestorm said as the white pony bowed to the ladies.

"Hello there ladies, it is a pleasure to meet you" he said in a Trottish (Scottish) accent.

"What an exotic accent, where are you from?" Rarity asked.

"I am glad you asked lass, I am from the highland country of Trotland" he smiled as he exhaled a breath of smoke. Blitz coughed when the smoke his face.

"You know that's bad for you" Blitz said fanning away the smoke with his wings.

"Oh you are one to be giving me health advice lad; you can't even see two inches in front of your bloody face!" Pathfinder laughed as Blitz growled at him. "Remind me again why we are bringin' this one along sir?" he asked Firestorm as he finished his smoke.

"He was one of my right hooves in the war, and a good friend, and besides, Rainbowdash does say he needs to get out of the house more" he chuckled as the ponies were escorted to their quarters on the ship. The girls came into a large room beside the captain's quarters, it had five beds in it and each one hung from the wall and had a nice thick mattress on each bed.

"Only five beds?" Rainbowdash asked confused. She felt Firestorm nudge her; she turned to see him motioning her to go to the next room. She did and when she opened the door, she found a large king size bed with white sheets and two pillows on it. The walls were decorated with banners, swords, and maps. On a mannequin beside the bed was a set of leather armor with no helmet.

"You will be staying with me" he smiled as he sat her stuff down beside the bed. Just then a loud explosion was heard from under the ship, shaking it back and forth and causing all of ponies to lose their balance and fall over. "What in Equestria was that?" Firestorm said as he looked to see the door that led bellow deck fly open and an earth pony tumble out with a metallic leg. "Tinker what happened?" Firestorm asked the coughing earth pony.

"Oh its nothing, just a little malfunction with a containment device I was building, nothing to worry about" the grey earth pony with a spike and disorganized white mane and tail said as he wiped the ash off of his face. "The ship didn't take any damage but if you see a little half rat half bird running around, I would advise smashing it before it sees you" he said as he walked back below deck showing all of them his gear shaped cutie mark.

"Well, it seems Tinker is keeping himself busy" Firestorm chuckled as the ship was unhooked from the docks and a group of pegasi pulled it out to deeper water before it dropped its sails. Firestorm sat in a large throne behind the wheel of the ship, reading a book as Pathfinder steered it.

"RELEASE THE SAILS!" Pathfinder ordered to the ponies climbing the rope ladders that led further up the mast. The sailors pulled some ropes with their mouths, dropping the large white sails that had a large golden sun painted on the main sail the shown in the sun. The ship began to pick up speed as they went further and further out to sea.


	3. Stowaways

In the cargo hold of the ship, the contents of one of the food crates shifted around. Two strong back hoofs bucked the side of the box open and three little ponies walked out of the box filled with hay. The light shown them to be the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they looked around to see where they were. "I think we are out at see now" Scootaloo said as she became a bit nauseous from the swaying of the large boat.

"Gee, really?" Applebloom said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Well we can't forget the reason we came along anyway, going to different lands could help us earn out cutie marks!" Sweetiebell said in her squeaky voice.

"I don't care if it is nothing, I am giving you an order to go down there and see what all that noise is!" a voice said from behind the door near them. They turned to see it slowly opening.

"Quick, hide!" Applebloom yell whispered to her friends who dove behind some barrels as a large earth pony in a sailor suit walked in. His coat was light blue and his mane was a crew cut black with a sailor's hat on top. He had a thin beard around his face and his cutie mark was an anchor. He held a lantern in his mouth.

"I can't believe he had me come down here, and in the middle of the night to?" he muttered to himself as he turned his head from side to side, shining the light amongst the various food and munitions barrels. He turned his head to the crate that the Crusaders had stowed away in to see that the side had fallen off. "Cheap Sugarcuban crates" he said to himself as he held the side of the box to hammer it back on with his hoofs.

"Let's scat while he is distracted" Applebloom whispered as she and the others snuck past the occupied sailor and through the door he had left open. They walked up the wooden stairs to find themselves in what appeared to be the bunking quarters. They looked around to see hammocks hanging all around the room in the form of bunks, three for each group. All of the sailors were asleep and snoring except for Tinker who sat in his room with the candle lighting the room as he worked on a small golden orb of intricate design.

"OK, let's find Firestorm's room and convince him to let us stay and help, the others would just send us home" Scootaloo whispered as they crept past the sleeping sailors and then past Tinker's office. Tinker's hoof slipped and he cut himself.

"Shit" he whispered as he sucked on the wound. The three friends reached the door that led onto the main deck of the ship. She carefully opened the door to see the moonlit deck only had one pony on it, it was Pathfinder and he was leaned on the edge rail and smoking a cigarette which lit up his face with an orange glow.

"This way" Scootaloo whispered as they crept across the deck of the swaying ship. They all hid behind the mast by stacking on top of one another's shoulders. They then peeked around to see Pathfinder still smoking and they crept to the large door at the head of the ship under the upper platform where the throne and wheel was. They opened the door and slipped inside and closed the door behind them. They looked at the tow doors in form of them; one of them marked "Captain's Quarters".

"That one!" Sweetiebell whispered as the opened the door to find Rainbowdash and Firestorm looking out the glass window that was to the left of their bed. They snuck under the desk that was across from the large bed and hid in the open area under the desk between both of the sections of drawers. They peaked out through the little space between the desk and the floor; they all watched the two ponies lean on each other.

"What are they doing?" Scootaloo asked as he saw them face each other and then lock lips, causing all of them to cover their mouths with their hoofs to stop their gasps. "EWW!" Scootaloo whispered as the two lovers continued to kiss and then grab around each other. Firestorm picked up Rainbowdash with his front hoofs and walked over to his desk with his back legs and laid her across the mahogany desk top on her stomach.

"I think I am gonna be sick" Applebloom whispered as they looked through the opening to see Rainbowdash's and Firestorm hoofs close together. Rainbowdash giggled as Firestorm pressed his erected member against her tight entrance and began to enter, causing her to gasp and blush at the same time. The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat under the desk for several minutes, eyes open wide with veins showing and pupils small as they rocked back and forth as they heard Rainbowdash gasp and moan over and over again.

"Who's a good pony?" Firestorm whispered in her ear as he continued to thrust. Toby sat in the corner of the room in his little bed with his blanket pulled over his head as he shivered in shock of what was happening around him.

"I am" she gasped as he went faster. Applebloom and the others just looked at each other scared as they saw a thick white liquid drip down onto the floor just in front of the desk between Firestorms now relaxed legs as he and Rainbowdash walked over to the bed and held each other close with both of their manes a mess.

"I'm scared" Scootaloo shivered as she and her friends sat in a tight circle, terrified at what they just witnessed.

Meanwhile bellow the room, Blitz lay in his hammock with his eyes wide open and bloodshot, having heard everything that had just happened. "I cannot unhear what I just heard" he whispered to himself as he curled up in his white hammock and shivered. As the two lovers above drifting off into sleep, Toby peeked out from his blanket and saw a purple tail under the desk and he opened his hood, showing the skull pattern on the back of his neck. He hissed as he slithered out of his bed and under the desk, causing the fillies to scream.

"SNAKE!" Scootaloo screamed causing Firestorm and Rainbowdash to wake up and Firestorm to look at the part of Toby that was sticking out from under the desk, which was the back of his tail.

"Toby!" Firestorm said causing the snake to slither out from under the desk and back into his bed as Firestorm walked over to see the three terrified fillies under there. "When did you three get here?" He said smiling as they came out from under the desk.

"Sorry for sneaking on board you majesty" Applebloom said trying not to make eye contact with him after what she had just witnessed.

"We just really wanted to help you and earn our cutie marks" Sweetiebell said also looking away.

"Girls" he spoke as he knelt down to them "If you wanted to come along, all you had to do was ask" he smiled as they looked up at him. "Although now that you are here, you are gonna have to work around the ship, understood?" he said to the three fillies who just nodded. "Good" he said as he tore down three banners and formed them into a bunk hammock with three levels. "I don't have beds anywhere else on the ship, but you are more than welcome to sleep here" he smiled warmly as they were lifted up into the beds by his wings.

"Just promise us something" Scootaloo said getting Firestorms attention. "Promise us you won't do what you did awhile ago again" she said. Firestorm and Rainbowdash just looked at each other with wide eyes and red faces as sweat beaded down both of their faces.

"S-sure, no problem" he coughed as he slowly walked backwards and got into bed with Rainbowdash and held her close to him in a spooning position and whispered in her ear. "I think we just scarred them for life" he said as she slowly nodded as the light from Firestorms mane died down as it turned black and fell over his eyes. They all drifted off into sleep as the sea rocked the ship.


	4. Into the Haze

Firestorm awoke o the sound of seagulls outside of his windows. He slowly sat up so not to wake Rainbowdash and opened one of the windows and shot down one of the seagulls with a spell and picked it up with his magic. "Toby, come here boy" he said to the cobra who peeked his head out from the little red blanket that covered him up. "Time for breakfast boy" he smiled as he tossed the dead seagull to his pet who quickly began to bite it to inject his venom to make sure it is dead. Toby then proceeded to unhinge his jaw and slowly consume the bird. "Good boy" Firestorm smiled as he walked outside on the main deck to find he was the only pony awake. "Peace and quiet" he said as he looked over the edge of the ship to see a large shard of driftwood with something holding onto it, trying not to fall off. "Shit, PONY OVERBOARD!" Firestorm called as he rang the large bell that hung near the mast, causing all of the sailors below deck to fall out of their beds and run up on deck.

"What's with all the noise?" Rarity groaned in her sleep with her eye mask over her face. She sat up to show she had curlers in hair.

"I don't know" Applejack said as she lifted her hat off of her face and jumped off of her bed to wake up the others. "But I think we better go see what all the fuss is about" she said as she pulled the blankets off of every pony causing them to fall in the floor. "Up and at em girls!" she said as she lead the way outside to see two of the pegasi sailors carrying a large wolf on board and Pathfinder quickly gave him a blanket that he held around him as he sneezed.

"Thank you kindly sir" the wolf said as he shivered.

"What happened to you?" Firestorm asked with his mane flowing back and forth.

"Oh you poor thing" Fluttershy said as she flew over to check on the wolf to see if he had any injuries. The wolf just sneezed and continued to shiver.

"My name is Half Moon, my family and I were out on our boat on vacation when these pirates came out of nowhere and killed them all. I managed to survive by jumping overboard and grabbing a piece of driftwood from our boat which they blew up after looting it. I floated for what seemed like days until you ponies rescued me" he said with another sneeze. Firestorm knelt down in front of the large wolf and smiled with Rainbowdash close behind him.

"Well you are more than welcome to sail with us to the nearest port and we can drop you off" he said patting him on the head. He stood up and turned to Rainbowdash with the smile gone from his face. "Be on the lookout, something about his story isn't entirely true" Firestorm whispered as he trotted up the wheel of the ship and looked down at his crew and friends. "Fluttershy get Half Moon something to eat, and a warm place to dry off, and as for the rest of you get ready to set sail for the nearest port" he said as some of the crew members raised anchor and the others lowered the sails as Fluttershy led Half Moon below deck. Blitz flew up to Firestorm who then sat down in his chair and glanced at him. "You hear anything?" he asked the blind pegasus.

"Yeah, something is sailing toward us, and its big" Blitz said with a bit of sweat rolling down his face. "What should we do?" he asked as the sea air blew his hair around.

"Get ready for anything, make sure everyone on board has a weapon" Firestorm ordered as Blitz nodded and flew below to tell the rest of the crew that wasn't above deck. Pathfinder flew up to the wheel and began to turn it to the right.

"You alright sir? Yah seem a bit uneasy 'bout something'" Pathfinder asked his friend.

"I'm fine, just set a course for the nearest island" Firestorm said as they entered a large mass of fog. Firestorm kept a close eye on everything around him as much as he could but could barely see anything.

Meanwhile in Firestorm's Quarters, Rainbowdash sat on the bed and looked out at the fog as Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetiebell walked over to her and sat beside her on the large bed. "What'cha doin' Rainbowdash?" Applebloom asked the pegasus who just turned to them.

"Just thinking about stuff" she said as she sighed an looked out the window again.

"What kind of stuff?" Scootaloo asked scooting closer to her idol until she was almost pressing against her side.

"Just Firestorm" she said patting the little filly on the head.

"Has he asked you to marry him yet?" Sweetiebell asked causing Rainbowdash to turn a bright red.

"No, not yet" she chuckled nervously.

"Do you think he ever will?" Sweetiebell said fanaticizing what the wedding would be like.

"Hopefully" she smiled again as she heard the door open and in came her friends who were talking amongst themselves. "Hey guys, what's up?" she said with a sound of relief in her voice as Applejack and Rarity turned to see their little sisters sitting on the bed.

"APPLEBLOOM!" Applejack exclaimed to her little sister who hid behind Rainbowdash.

"Sweetiebell?" Rarity said confused as the little unicorn also hid behind Rainbowdash. "What in Equestria are you doing here?" her older sister said as she walked past the desk where Firestorm and Rainbowdash had fun on the night before.

"I should ask the same question to you to little filly!" Applejack said in a hostel tone as she walked over to her little sister. "Why I have the mind to paddle your little plot for sneakin' on board" she said as Applebloom swallowed and stood up from behind Rainbowdash and began to speak.

"But Firestorm said we could stay!" she pointed out as Rarity stood beside Applejack with a puzzled look on her face as to why the room smelt funny.

"Oh dear, does any pony else smell that musty odor, it smells like se…" Rarity was stopped mid sentence by Applejack who stuck her hoof against her mouth.

"Hush up Rarity, Applebloom don't know 'bout that sort of thing yet" she whispered in her friends ear as they looked to see Rainbowdash red faced. Twilight and the others smelt the room and looked over to see the stain on the wooden floor in front of the desk.

"Now that is just wrong" Twilight said shaking her head as Pinkiepie just giggled. "Girls, I think you need to have a talk with those three about the birds and the bees" Twilight said as Scootaloo looked up at Rainbowdash confused. "Rainbowdash you talk to Scootaloo about it since she considers you like an older sister" she spoke as she bought in some salt water from outside and a nearby brush and began to clean the floor with her magic.

"Um, I'm really not that good at talking to kids about stuff like that" Rainbowdash said but was soon shot a look by Twilight."F-fine" she sighed as Scootaloo just smiled at her. Twilight and Pinkie left the room. About ten minutes passed before the three little fillies left the room with a shocked look on their faces. Rainbowdash let Pinkie and Twilight back inside and they all sat around the room looking at the stuff in there.

"So Rainbowdash…how was it?" Rarity asked the blushing pegasus who just looked at her. "What? We know you two did it in here, we can still smell it" she giggled as Twilight saw the scuff marks around each leg of the mahogany desk.

"Why are there scuff marks over here?" Twilight asked the still blushing Rainbowdash.

"Come one every pony, you know I'm not the type to kiss and tell" she said as she looked down at Toby who was in his little bed with an open book in front of him and a tiny pair of reading glasses on.

"Well we know ya'll two did more than kiss" Applejack chuckled as she looked at the sword case on the wall. Rainbowdash began to sweat nervously which was something she rarely did and just as she was about to say something, the ship shook violently causing all of them to fall down.

"Oh thank Celestia" Rainbowdash said. "I mean um…what the hell was that?" she said as she flew out of the room with her friends close behind. Twilight ran up the stairs to where she was standing beside Firestorm.

'What is going on?" Twilight asked.

"Pirates" Firestorm growled as he looked down at the boarding hooks that had been shot into the side of the ship. Each one had a large rope connected to it that dragged the ship closer to a solid black pirate ship with wolves on the deck with different types of swords in their claws and different pieces of pirate garb on each one. The two vessels struck each other's sides and boarding ramps were placed across them, allowing the snarling wolves to board with their weapons ready. Firestorms crew came up from bellow deck with weapons drawn as well and each crew was at a standoff. A howl was heard and a path was made as a large wolf in a bright red jacket and leather captain's hat walked across the fog covered plank. He hopped on board with a sword in his claw and a smirk on his face, as Firestorm saw he had a large scar across one eye, which blinded that eye.

"Drop your weapons and we will let most of you live" he said as Half Moon came from bellow deck with a knife up to Fluttershy's neck. "Drop 'em or the lass dies" he smirked as Firestorm flew down in front of the pirate captain and ordered his crew to drop their weapons. "That's better" he smirked as he looked closer to see who Firestorm was and his eyes went wide. "Well boys it seems we have come across a royal ship, plenty of loot on board I bet" the captain smiled as he looked at Twilight and her friends. "And women as well" he laughed causing the wolf crew to murmur amongst themselves about having their way with each of them.

"Who are you?" Firestorm growled to him.

"Name is Captain White Eye your majesty" he said taking off his hat and sarcastically bowing to Firestorm. "And this be me crew, the Sea Mist Marauders" he smiled evilly. "Boys take this one alive, I am sure Celestia will pay a handsome price to get her little brother Firestorm back, alive" he ordered as the Cutie Mark Crusaders peaked out their heads from behind some barrels.

"This is not good" they all whispered in unison.


	5. Cutie Mark Crusaders to the Rescue

White Eye approached Firestorm and crossed his arms as he looked up at the large alicorn. "You are a big one aren't yah lad?" he smirked as one of the pirates brought forward a set of shackles and a neck restraint. "Take him to the brig along with the mares, kill the rest of the crew" he ordered as the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked out from behind the barrel they hid behind.

"Why isn't Firestorm doing anything?" Sweetiebell said as they strapped the restrains on the angry alicorn.

"He won't do anything as long as Half Moon has that blade up to Fluttershy's neck" Scootaloo pointed out as she looked up at a large crate being held by a net above Half Moon. "Maybe we could cut down that crate and smash Half Moon" Scootaloo whispered to her friends.

"That's crazy, we can't climb up there without getting' spotted" Applebloom objected. They all turned to see them having trouble restraining Firestorm because the metal shackles turned a bright red when they were around his body, which burned the wolves.

"Maybe we don't have to" Scootaloo said as she picked up a knife in her mouth. "Sweetiebell, how much has Rarity taught you about lifting and throwing things with magic?"

"Just a little, why?" she said as Scootaloo gave her the knife.

"See if you can hurl this up at that rope and cut it" Scootaloo said as Sweetiebell's horn began to glow a bright blue as the knife hovered.

"You can do it" Applebloom encouraged as Sweetiebell began to sweat as she hurled the knife and it slashed the dead center. Half Moon looked up to see the crate fall and he let go of Fluttershy who flew out of the way as he tried to dive out of the way but was crushed by the large crate.

"NOW LADS!" Pathfinder said as he punched one of the wolves in the face, sending him overboard and into the water between the boats. As he resurfaced, the boats swung together, smashing him into a thin paste that covered a small bit of each of the ships. Firestorm's crew picked up their weapons and began to attack the pirates in sword to sword combat. Twilight shot out some spells at several of the pirates, knocking them out cold.

"Buck, you!" Applejack said as she bucked two of them in the chest, causing them to cough up blood and cracking several of their ribs as they flew back to their ship.

"Come and get some!" Rainbowdash said as she motioned for a large wolf to attack her. It came charging and swinging its cutlass like a maniac. Rainbowdash flew over him and grabbed his vest and slammed him to the ground, breaking his neck. Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetiebell all watched in amazement at what was happening around them.

"This is insane" Scootaloo said as she saw Firestorm struggling to get out of the cuffs. "We gotta help Firestorm!" Scootaloo said as she was held back by Applebloom.

"Just watch, I heard he can hold more than hold his own in a fight" she said as Twilight ran over to him and began to shoot the locks with a spell that caused the cuffs to rust and shatter.

"There you go" she said as a wolf with a missing front leg raised his sword with his other one to smash it down on Twilight. A large explosion was heard as the pirate behind her went flying, Twilight turned to see Pinkie with her party cannon and a smile on her face. "Thanks Pinkie" she smiled as Firestorm cracked his neck.

"I ain't letting me pay day get away from me!" White eye said as he tackled Firestorm and began to claw him in the face as he received hoofs to the chest.

"Firestorm!" Twilight said as her horn glowed black and a large skeletal hand shot out from the water and grabbed a hold of White Eye and flung him back to his ship where he hit the mast with a loud pop noise. Twilight's horn stopped glowing black and the hand receded into the water. "Are you ok?" she asked the bleeding Alicorn.

"I am starting to get a bit irritated with these guys" he said as he looked around to see his crew and friends fighting off the wolves. "Blitz, get ready!" he said as his horn glowed red and the fog around the ships became so thick that you couldn't see anything around you.

"My turn" Blitz said as he tapped his hoof on the wooden deck and then flew through the fog, taking out pirate after pirate. "Done" he said as Firestorm released the spell causing some of the fog to clear, showing wolves lying down bleeding on the deck of the ship, some with black eyes. Pathfinder looked at the unconscious wolf in front of him and then at Blitz with mouth agape, causing him to drop the cigarette in his mouth.

"Well I'll be damned, the blind lad actually did it" Pathfinder chuckled as he looked at the other ship to see White Eye standing up slowly with a strange object in his claws. "What in bloody hell is that?" he said as he saw it was a black sword hilt with a purple gem in the center of it.

"Well well, it looks like he found the jewel of greed" Firestorm smirked as he walked across the plant that connected the two ships and confronted the wolf whose eyes were glowing a bright purple. "Twilight, be a dear and come over here would you" he said as she teleported over beside him. "We are going to take this one on together" he said as the rest of the crew and his friends watched from the other ship.

"Every pony else stay back! Get to close and this magic may destroy you!" Twilight said as the crew mumbled amongst themselves.

"You can do it Twilight! Beat that walking fashion disaster!" Rarity cheered.

"Don't get so confident" White Eye said in a more sinister voice as the black sword hilt began to glow, causing a large, curved, jagged, phantasmal purple blade form from it. "I changed my mind about keeping you alive" he growled as he swung the sword to the side, causing a large gust of wind to slice apart the two wolf corpses on the deck of the ship, leaving behind a giant blood stain.

"You ready Twilight?" Firestorm laughed as his eyes changed from blue to red, and the whites turned black. His teeth became pointed and his mane became disorganized and brighter.

"Are you sure it won't out of control?" she asked but was answered by a chuckle from the large alicorn. "Alright" she said as she closed her eyes and focused as her eyes turned bright green as well as he mane, which stuck up in a spike form, as well as her tail. Twilight felt the urge to just go insane and kill everything around her but for some reason was able to suppress it.

"Time to have some fun" Firestorm laughed as a large broad sword made of bones shot out of the water and into his hoofs. Twilight smirked and her horn glowed black as a skeletal sea serpent shot out from the water behind White Eye and roared so loud that it shook both of the ships. White Eye laughed as he jumped up in the air and down at the two ponies in their enraged modes.

"So…awesome" Rainbowdash said wide eyed as the sea serpent chased after White Eye.


	6. Tainted with Greed

White Eye ran up the mask, digging his claws into the black wood to make sure he didn't fall. As he ran, Firestorm rode on the head of the skeletal serpent that coiled around the mast, getting closer and closer to him. "You can't keep running!" Firestorm said as Twilight controlled the serpent from where she was standing. Firestorm let out an insane laugh like that of a crazed killed when he jumped off the skull of the serpent. With his wings outstretched, and his large broadsword in both of his hoofs, he swung the mighty blade at the wolf who jumped over it and lunged at Firestorm, cutting him slightly on his face right under his left eye. "Now we are having fun!" Firestorm laughed as he repeatedly slammed the skeletal sword on White Eye's sword as he held it in front of his face to block each of the strong attacks.

"What is wrong with Firestorm? This isn't anything like him" Fluttershy asked as she walked over to her friends.

"He is in his enraged mode, it's a form that allows him to cast higher level spells and increase his physical strength beyond that of any mortal" Rainbowdash answered as she watched her lover fight like a maniac.

"But that still doesn't explain why he is acting like a homicidal maniac" Rarity added.

"He told me that when he is in that form, it is best to just keep a distance. He said that form amplifies his desire to kill and fight, in other words yeah it does turn him into a homicidal maniac, but he is able to control it somehow, but he told me when he was possessed by Apocalypse, the urge was insatiable. He fought whenever he could; he even tried to kill his own sisters before they banished him. He never told me how he learned to control it" Rainbowdash answered as the fighting on the other ship rocked their ship. "Some pony cut the lines before we are taken under!" she ordered as several pegasi flew down and slashed the ropes with their swords, sending the pirate ship away from them while the fighting increased. Firestorm landed a cut across White Eye's left arm, getting a good bit of blood on his blade.

"Firestorm, JUMP!" Twilight yelled in an echoing voice as the large serpent charged up a ball of black energy in its mouth behind Firestorm. The alicorn flew up in the air as the sphere turned into a laser, which shot directly at White Eye. The wolf swung his sword at the attack, sending it flying out into the water, causing a large explosion that caused a chain reaction of violent waves. The large waves shook both of the ships, knocking all of the dead wolf crew off of the ponies' ship and into the sea, turning parts of it a dark crimson.

"Impressive, if I hadn't have knocked that away when I did I might be dead right now" White Eye said with the fur on his right arm burnt off, showing pale flesh with third degree burns all over it. The large snake retracted into the sea and Twilight nearly collapsed but managed to keep her balance. Her mane, tail, and eyes all returned to normal as she sat down exhausted. "It looks like the girl has exhausted herself" White Eye smirked as the pain from his arm stabbed at him like a knife.

"But I still have plenty of energy to burn" Firestorm laughed as he felt a balled fist panted into the side of his face. "Shit" he said as he was flung down to the deck bellow and into several barrels, shattering them letting water flow out over him.

"I hate that laugh" White Eye growled as he jumped down on top of Firestorms body and held his throat with his left claw and raised his sword with his right. "Time to shut you up for good" he said as Firestorms sword fell down from the top of the mast and stuck into the wooden floor.

"Firestorm!" Rainbowdash called out as she was being held back by her brother from flying over to him. She bucked and flapped her wings to try to get loose but Blitz wouldn't let go.

"You'll be killed if you interfere!" he said as he wrestled her to the floor and held her in a choke hold. Rainbowdash's voice echoed inside of Firestorms ears as the wolf was about to deliver a kill blow on him. His eyes shot open and he burnt a hole in the floor of the ship, letting himself fall through and into the room below. Twilight sat by and watched as White Eye followed her friend below deck with his sword ready. She glanced over at the sword that Firestorm had conjured up. She examined the saw toothed edges of the blade made from jaw bones of some large animal. She looked at the handle and grad made from vertebra and the skull connecting the handle and the guard together.

"I have to get this back to him" she said to herself as she limped towards the giant weapon. Meanwhile bellow deck, Firestorm was lurking in the shadows of the ship as White Eye sniffed the air for him.

"I know you're down here lad, I can smell your blood" he smirked as Firestorm materialized behind him out of his shadow with a knife in his hoof that he had found laying on the ground. Firestorm lunged at White Eye, cutting off one of his ears before he disappeared into the shadows once more. "Bastard, hiding in the shadows!" he growled as he felt his other ear be sliced off. He fell to the floor holding his head in pain.

"Live in darkness long enough and you learn how to use it to your advantage" Firestorms voice echoed through the room.

"Well let's see how you fight in the light" White Eye said as his sword grew brighter, illuminating the space around him, and revealing Firestorm standing right behind him with his red eyes shining. "You lost lad, you have no decent weapon, you have run out of places to hide and you made the mistake of underestimating me" he laughed as he raised his sword to strike. A gleam came from the hole Firestorm had made in the deck above and he looked to see Twilight with Firestorms sword in hoof.

"Catch" Twilight said as she threw the large sword with all of her remaining strength. Firestorm caught it in his mouth and slashed off White Eye's right hand, sending the sword to the ground, as well as white eye. Firestorms sword dissipated as he returned to normal and picked up the sword White Eye had used in his mouth and looked down at the fallen wolf.

"Do it" he growled. Firestorm just turned and walked over to the hole he had made and jumped up beside Twilight Sparkle who looked at him confused. "Coward" White Eye coughed as he jumped up after the alicorn, only to be met by a cyan hoof to the face. He looked to see Rainbowdash with a pissed off look on her face as the wolf went flying into the mast.

"Stay down" Rainbowdash said as she walked over to Firestorm who held the sword in his mouth still. The blade retracted and the hilt turned to ash and all that remained was the jewel of greed. Firestorm held it in his hoof and looked over at the near dead wolf.

"A captain always goes down with his ship" he smirked as he and Rainbowdash carried Twilight back over to their ship and placed her down beside some barrels. Twilight looked up at him and Rainbowdash and smiled as her friends ran over to her to check on her.

"What are we going to do about that thing?" Rainbowdash asked pointing at the black pirate ship.

"I think I have enough energy left to take care of it" Firestorm said as he limped over to the side of the ship and clopped his hooves together as his horn glowed red. The water around the pirate ship began to bubble. Large white spires formed around the ship and the crew watching in amazement as Firestorm opened his eyes, revealing them to be solid white. The spires breached the hull of the ship, dragging it down below the water in the blink of an eye. Te only thing that floated up was a black leather captains hat. Every pony on the ship was awe struck with mouths agape as Firestorm swayed back and forth and was caught by Applebloom, Sweetiebell, and Scootaloo, who gently carried him to his bed. A they sat him down they stood on their back hooves leaning on the bed as Firestorm opened his eyes slowly and smiled at the little fillies.

"That was so totally freakin awesome!" Scootaloo spoke.

"I couldn't have done it without your help you know" he smiled.

"Why is that?" Applebloom asked as the ship started to move again.

"If you hadn't have saved Fluttershy when you did, I wouldn't have been able to attack them and get this" he said as he held out the jewel of greed that glowed brightly in his hoof. "Even if you three don't earn your cutie marks on this quest, The Cutie Mark Crusaders will go down in history as some of the bravest fillies I ever knew" he laughed as he patted each one of them on the head.

"Thank you your majesty" Sweetiebell said as Toby slithered up on top of his master and curled up under his wing.

"When we get to the next port, I will show you three my way of thanking ponies" he smiled as Rainbowdash walked into the room and leaned on the doorframe and smiled. "And besides, we are gonna be docked there for awhile to get repairs done to the ship so consider your reward a vacation a tropical island" he said as the three little fillies smiled and left the room and Rainbowdash closed the door behind her.

"So where are we stopping at anyway?" she asked as she handed him a lock box with something rolling around in it. He opened the box and sat the jewel inside beside the one he had taken from Trixie.

"One of my favorite places, Seahorse Island" he smiled. "I figured the crew could use a little R and R after that last incident" he said as she lay down beside him a bit tired. Toby stuck his head out from Firestorm's feathers in his wings and put on a pair of miniature shades causing the both of them to laugh.

"Looks like Toby is ready for a vacation as well" they laughed as the cobra slid back into Firestorm wing.


	7. Trouble in Paradise

Twilight stood at the head of the ship and looked out in the distance at a small island. It had a beautiful beach line that was lined with white sand and crystal clear water. Several large resort buildings were just outside of the white sanded beach, and behind all of that, in the center of the island was a large volcano. She had read that the volcano erupted 500 years ago and wiped out the entire island and that a new city was built from the ashes. The ground being incredibly fertile from the volcanic ash, allowed the large jungle that covered a large portion of the island to grow the luscious jungle. On the far east side of the island was a harbor that was shaped like a crescent moon, which is what the ship was heading into. "This place is beautiful" Twilight said as she looked at the large sea horse shaped rock in the center of the harbor.

"Aye lass" Pathfinder said walking up behind her. "Tis a beautiful place, Firestorm stopped here on our last trip together when I took him to Tuskany. The ship went under attack by some giant squid and sustained allot of damage, so he stopped here to let us relax while the ship was being repaired." Pathfinder smiled.

"Wow, that was really awesome of him to do that" Twilight said as several pegasi pulled the sip beside a dock.

"He is a good lad, he really tries his best for every pony to be happy" Pathfinder said looking down at the harbor to see gorillas walking around on the ground in palm tree shirts, and several mare earth ponies in hula skirts with flower necklaces on waiting for the crew to get off the ship so they could greet them.

"Well, I better get the others and tell them we are here" Twilight said as she began to walk to the rooms at the back of the ship.

"Aye" Pathfinder said as he watched her trot across the deck and through the door. Twilight walked into Firestorm's quarters to find all of her friends laughing and socializing.

"We are here gang, let's get off the ship and enjoy ourselves until it is fixed" Twilight spoke as Firestorm stood up and groaned from the pain in his back.

"Easy there partner, don't wanna hurt yourself" Applejack said keeping him up.

"I'll be fine Applejack" he chuckled as Toby slithered up his front leg and into his mane where he put on his miniature shades and rested on his master's head. "Let's get moving girls, and Blitz" he said looked at the blind pegasus who swapped his goggles with solid black sunglasses that covered all around his fogged over eyes. Applebloom and her friends stood ready with buckets, shovels, and a large surf board on Scootaloo's back which Pinkiepie and Fluttershy helped her with. They all left the cabin and walked down the ramp and onto the wooden dock where they and the sailors were greeted by the local earth ponies with tribal cutie marks. While the other sailors and Pathfinder started to hit on the locals, causing them to giggle and lead each one of them off into town, except for Blitz who just kept a straight face and sighed as he followed Firestorm and the rest of the girls to the beach part of the island. Firestorm looked back to see Tinker with his welding mask on and a blow torch in hoof as he held a large metal sheet up to the side of the ship.

"This place is simply marvelous" Rarity said as she looked around to see some of the stallions on the island watch them as they walked by. "And the colts here aren't too bad either" she giggled.

"Careful Rarity, don't go runnin' off with none of em" Applejack warned as she looked at the unicorn through her apple shaped sunglasses. They all stopped at a large palm tree on a flat, hard surface of sand and sat down on towels they laid out.

"BEACH PARTY!" Pinkie said as she opened her bag to reveal a mini radio, some beers, several balloons and a compactable beach umbrella.

"How did you manage to fit all of that in there?" Rainbowdash asked as she lowered her shades with her hoof and looked as she pulled out thing after thing from the little pink bag. Pinkie just laughed as she tossed Rainbowdash a beer which she held in front of Firestorm's face and shook it a bit. The alicorn sighed and took off the lid with his magic and hurled it into a nearby trash can.

"I feel bad for Tinker, I mean he has to stay back and work while we relax" Fluttershy said with a seagull resting on her head.

"Work for him is like flying for Rainbowdash, it's what he lives for and what he loves to do" Firestorm said as he lay on his stomach with his hooves crossed in front of him. Pinkie pressed the on button on the little radio and turned the stations until she got a signal. It was a local station with island music playing at the moment and several locals watched the strangers having a good time. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had carried the large surfboard out to the water by now and Scootaloo sat at the back, propelling it forward with her wings.

"OK girls; let's see if we can get out cutie marks in surfing!" Applebloom said as a large wave approached and took the board and flipped it in an instant. The three little fillies went under and soon resurfaced and hopped back on the board and tried again and again.

"They just don't give up do they?" Twilight chuckled as she read a book about illusion spells.

"Don't worry, they will get tired eventually" Firestorm smirked as he held a beer in his hoof and took a drink. Rarity was lying on her towel in the sun with a tanning mirror in her hooves as the sun in front of her was blocked out by something. She lifted her glasses to see a large unicorn stallion with a tan coat with a sandy blonde mane and tail, and a surf board cutie mark smiling at her.

"Well hello there" Rarity smiled as she sat up.

"Hello yourself, I was just sitting at my spot over there spot and I couldn't help but notice you walk onto the beach. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang with me for a bit" he said a bit nervously as she smiled at him. Just as she was about to speak a large dark brown pegasus followed by two others walked up and shoved the tan pony to the sand and laughed at him.

"High Tide, I told you not to come back to this beach, this here is our turf punk!" the big one in the middle said as High Tide picked himself up and brushed the sand off of himself.

"Sand Bar you jerk!" he growled at the pegasus who just laughed more at him causing his faded orange mane to fall over his eyes.

"Careful Tide, better watch what you say or we are gonna have to beat you up in front of this pretty lady here" Sand Bar smirked.

"You brute, nothing calls for such maltreatment of other ponies!" Rarity said standing up for High Tide who had a shocked look on his face.

"Oh look guys, Tide here has to have a mare stand up for him" Sand Bar laughed as he eyed Rarity. "Hey baby, how about you ditch that loser and come and hang with a real stallion" he smirked as he gave her a dirty look.

"I would rather stick my head in a dumpster" Rarity growled.

"No one shoots down Sand Bar!" the angry stallion yelled as he stretched out his wings in rage.

"Hey dude, don't yell at the lady" a voice said from behind both Rarity and High Tide. The three bullies looked to see Blitz walking over with his sun glasses still on. The dark blue pegasus had a melancholy look on his face as he approached the three bullies. "This will be a lot less painful if you just walk away right now" Blitz said in a stern voice that made the three brutes go silent for a moment before bursting out into laughter.

"Listen here you little shit, I can talk to whoever I want, however I want" Sand Bar growled as he two buddies behind him got ready to pounce on Blitz. "Why don't you just go back to your own little group little pony" Sand Bar said shoving Blitz to the ground, knocking off his glasses, revealing his fogged over and useless eyes. "Oh shit, the fucker is blind!" Sand Bar laughed as he felt a quick hoof to the face that caused him to stagger back and hold his face. "What the fuck?" he said as he looked to see the blind pegasus he pushed over standing up with a cyan mare pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail floating across from him with a pissed off look on her face.

"Don't you ever lay a hoof on my brother!" Rainbowdash said as she swung her hoof again, only to have it blocked by a dark brown wing. They wing knocked her back with some force and Firestorm looked over and began to stand up and proceed over to them at a slow pace with Toby on his head. Blitz heard his sister hit the ground and he became livid and flew forward and grabbed Sand Bar and threw him into a nearby tree. Rarity and High Tide were just standing by watching as the angry blind pegasus held Sand Bar up by the throat on the side of the palm tree and began to slowly choke him until he felt a hoof on his shoulder. He smelt the air and smelt snake skin and he knew it was Firestorm since he carries Toby with him almost everywhere.

"Let him go Blitz" Firestorm ordered causing Blitz to release the bully and let him drop to the sand below. "Don't go starting fights, we don't want to be on bad terms with the island" Firestorm said as he dragged the pegasus away by his tail with his magic, leaving behind a trail in the sand.

"Son of a bitch" Sand Bar coughed as he and his buddies flew off into town.

"Toby, get Blitz something to drink" Firestorm told the cobra as it slithered off of his head and over to the cooler full of beers. It grabbed one with his tail and flung it to Firestorm who hoofed it to Blitz who just sighed and drank it as he put his glasses back on and Rarity and High Tide began to talk to each other.

"LOOK OUT!" a female voice called out. Blitz was in the middle of his drink when something plastic hit him in the back of the head and knocked him forward, casing his glasses to yet again fly off and him to spill his drink, which pissed him off the most. His glasses fell into the sand and a female pegasus flew over, she had a bronze coat, black mane with a white streak in it that covered one eye, and her cutie mark was a full moon. She landed and picked up the Frisbee with her wing and walked over to Blitz who was feeling around the sand for his glasses. "I am SO SO SOOOOO sorry dude, are you ok?" she asked in a voice similar to Vynle Scratch's only a bit softer. She looked down to see Blitz's glasses at her hoof and she hoofed them to him. He turned up his head and she starred at his fogged over eyes and felt even worse knowing she hit a blind pony.

"Thanks" he mumbled as he blew them off and put them back on his face.

"Are you sure you're ok dude?" she asked as she knelt down in front of him.

"I'm fine, seriously it's ok" he chuckled as he picked up his now empty beer glass and threw it into a trash can behind him which amazed the mare.

"How did you do that?" she said amazed.

"When you're blind, you find other ways to see" he said as he sat up a bit.

"Well my name is Moon Dancer" she smiled as she picked up the Frisbee that hit Blitz.

"Blitz" he said strait faced.

"Maybe I will see you around town some time" she smiled as she flew off and Firestorm teleported beside Blitz.

"Firestorm, tell me, is she pretty?" Blitz asked as he was hoofed another beer.

"Beautiful" he answered as he felt a hoof hit him on top of the head. He held the forming knot on his head to see a pissed off Rainbowdash. "Oh hey Dashy" he chuckled nervously.

"You think that other pony is beautiful huh?" she growled with fire in her eyes.

"Well Blitz asked and I had to tell him the truth and…" he was cut off by another hoof to the head which made another knot form.

"What was that for?" he wined as the others laughed as Rainbowdash began to yell at him and lecture him as he was frozen with fear.

"Firestorm isn't scared easily, but one thing he fears more than anything else is an angry Rainbowdash" Twilight chuckled as Rainbowdash chased after him on hoof across the beach.

"Moon Dancer huh?" Blitz said to himself as he lied down on his back.


	8. Love is Blind

Firestorm sat in the shade under the large palm tree with several knots on top of his head as Rainbowdash sat under the umbrella a good ways away from him with a pissed off look on her face. Applebloom and Sweetiebell were building a sand castle that was rather crude looking. Scootaloo was sitting and talking with Fluttershy who was telling her different stories. Rarity was down in the water with High Tide, who was trying to teach her how to surf, which she was slowly learning how to do. Pinkiepie was passed out on one of the beach towels with several beer bottles around her as she snored. Twilight still sat quietly reading her book still while Blitz sat at the top of the palm tree. He lied on his back in the large green leaves of the tree as the sun beat down on his face. Applejack was asleep in the shade with her hat over her face and her back legs crossed.

"OK now, just put you hoof here and another here" High Tide said as he helped Rarity learn how to balance on the board. "Now you're getting it!" the unicorn smiled as Rarity shakily stood up on the board.

"This is actually quite fun" Rarity smiled as a little wave rolled towards her and shook the board, causing her to fall of and on top of High Tide's back, catching her before she fell in the water. "Well I almost had it" she giggled as he sat her back up on the board.

"Aww, look at those two" Twilight said as she looked up from her book at the two unicorns who were smiling and having a good time. Firestorm looked up at his friend who was in the tree above him and smiled as he got an idea. Firestorm stood up and punched the tree, causing the pegasus to fall out and onto the sand below.

"What the fuck dude?" Blitz said a he dug himself out of the hot sand.

"Gotcha" he laughed as he felt another sharp blow to the top of his head. He turned to see an irritated Rainbowdash grinding her hoof against his skull causing him to cringe in pain. "Dashy, what the hell!" Firestorm said as he pulled away. As the two of them began to argue, Blitz smelt the air around him and he recognized something. He stretched out his wings and took flight towards what he had detected.

"See, you made him leave!" Rainbowdash yelled as she tried to punch Firestorm but he ducked, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Missed me" he laughed as he felt Rainbowdash land a kick between his legs. He bit his lip and a tear formed in his eye as he fell to the ground holding his crotch in pain as every pony else laughed at the two of them fighting. "Not cool dude" he said in a high squeaky voice.

Meanwhile, Blitz had flown into town and began to walk down the streets, smelling the air as he walked. He passed several gorillas who tried to sell him stuff but he just ignored them as he turned the corner of the street and stopped in front of what looked like a church. He walked up the stairs and opened the large wooden doors and smelt the air around him and smiled and turned to his left. "Fancy meeting you here" he said to Moon Dancer who was praying at an altar with a little statue of princess Luna in the center of it. With several candles lit around it.

"Blitz?" she said opening her eyes and turning to see the blind Pegasus tapping the row bleacher with his hoof. "What are you doing here, and also how did you even get here?" she said confused as she walked over to the dark blue pegasus

"I flew then walked, how else would I get here?" he asked jokingly as Moon Dancer stopped him from tapping on the seat beside him.

"Please be careful, the things in this building are very old" she said looking around the church.

"What is this place anyway?" he asked as he sat down in the bleacher.

"This is the church of the 3 siblings, it was originally the church of the two sisters up until recently when Firestorm came back to the world of the living and revealed himself to be the god of the land of the dead and judgment" she said looking over at the statue of Celestia at the head of the room. It was a life size replica of her, and showed signs of being older then the church itself. "The pony and gorilla natives of the island come here to pray to the siblings for guidance and justice. We pray to Celestia to continue to bring the light to this world and for good luck in our everyday lives. Some of us pray to Luna for a peaceful night and bountiful harvest moon. And up to about a year ago, we added the shrine to Firestorm, we pray to him to give our deceased passage into a peaceful afterlife, and to hold back the evil spirits of hell" she said as she looked over at the statue of Firestorm which was about a 1/3 scale model of him in his enraged form with a sinister and twisted evil smile on his face.

"You're people have an interesting culture" Blitz said as the doors behind him flew open and he sniffed the air to smell a familiar scent.

"Yo Blitz, Dashy is pissed at me and she sent me to find you" he said as he looked around the church. "Never figured you one for religion" Firestorm laughed as Moon Dancer starred at him wide eyed.

"You can go tell her to not get her mane in a bunch, I'm not mad, I just went for a walk" Blitz answered as the large alicorn walked over to the statue of him.

"Do I really look like that?" Firestorm questioned as he eyed the statue.

"Prince Firestorm?" Moon Dancer said in a shaky voice causing her to get the alicorn's attention.

"Hey, you are that pegasus from the beach earlier today" he smiled as she collapsed to the ground as he walked towards her. "Are you ok?" he asked a bit concerned.

"W-what are you doing here?" she said a bit scared.

"Duh, I'm on a little vacation" he smiled as Blitz punched him in the side of the face, sending him to the ground. "Why is that you and your sister always hit me!" he said as he picked himself up.

"Dude, you are scaring the filly, I think you should leave before you give some pony a heart attack!" Blitz ordered. Firestorm rolled his eyes and turned to the open doors to see several old gorilla nuns with mouths wide open. His horn glowed black and a coffin slammed up around him and pulled him under the ground and back to the beach.

"Are you ok" Blitz asked helping the filly to her feet.

"Yeah but he didn't kill you, even though you hit him, why?" she said confused.

"You make him sound like some homicidal maniac" he chuckled as the mare gave him a puzzled look.

"We heard that he was" she said confused as she and Blitz left the church and walked into town.

"Well when he changes forms he is but normally he is more docile, in fact he is rather sweet from what Dash tells me" he chuckled.

"Dash?" she asked confused.

"My little sister, the cyan pegasus with the rainbow colored mane. Let's just say she keeps him in check."

"So she is like his girlfriend or something?" she chuckled as they started to walk out of town and into the jungle just outside of it.

"You could say that, he and I sometimes butt heads but he is like a brother to me and I respect him even though is kind of childish now and then." Blitz said as they walked down a path cut through the overgrowth of plants. He didn't know where he was going but he felt that something was telling him to go down this path.

"Why are we going down here?" Moon Dancer asked as they approaches a large waterfall with a small little bird bath in front of it on a small island in the pool the of water formed by the waterfall. "I guess you heard some of the locals talking about this place, it is known as the healing springs. The waters as of recently have magic properties to cure any illness" she spoke as Blitz just stood there and thought.

"Any illness huh?" he said as he walked towards the water.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Trying something out" he said as he dove under the water and into the darkness of the deep parts of the pool. He floated around for awhile until he felt a bubble filled with air form around him. He gasped for breath inside of it as he felt what felt like solid ground under his hoofs. A large shade formed from his shadow and floated around in front of him until it formed into the shape of a large snake with a robe on. In the center of its forehead was a purple gem that glowed brightly.

"I know what it is that you seek child" it spoke in a almost whispered tone that echoed in the large bubble.

"Who are you?" Blitz spoke as the large serpent slithered in circles around him, leaving little trails in the water as he went.

"My name is not important, but what is important is why you are here" the large snake said from under his hood. "I know you have feelings for that mare up there, and that you regret not being able to look upon her face" the serpent smiled evilly as Blitz took off his sun glasses and revealed his fogged over eyes. The large serpent wrapped his tail around Blitz, restraining him and opening his mouth causing his fangs to come out just over the pegasus's eyes. A drop of venom formed on each fang and fell into his eyes, burning them. He released him as he began to thrash back and forth on the ground in pain as the fog in his eyes slowly receded and his irises turned a bright crimson red. Blitz slowly opened his eyes and saw the large black and purple serpent in front of him with a rag cloth cloak over his head, covering the purple jewel in his skull.

"I-I can see" Blitz said amazed as he looked down at the water to see his reflection. "It's unbelievable" he said in amazement at the serpent slithered towards him and smiled.

"Now with every gift, comes a price" the snake said as Blitz looked up at him.

"Anything" he said with a straight face.

"I want the two jewels of destruction on board your ship, bring them to me and you can keep your sight" he hissed to the shocked pegasus.

"And if I refuse?" Blitz said as his vision began to blur and then turn to black as the fog slowly crept back over his eyes. "OK ok, just don't take this from me" he begged as the serpent smiled.

"Very well, I will give you a day or so to enjoy your sight before you pay my fee, but once you have the jewels, bring them back here" he hissed as the bubble began to fill with water and Blitz held his breath and began to swim back to the surface of the poll where Moon Dancer stood worried. He stuck his head out and gasped for air as Moon Dancer pulled him onto the grassy shore.

"Are you alright? What happened?" the bronze pegasus asked. Blitz opened his eyes and turned them towards the mare that was holding him. He starred at her shocked face at seeing his eyes now crimson instead of fogged over grey. "Whoa" she said as she stared into his eyes.

"You're so…beautiful" he said as he held a hoof up to the side of her face. He pulled her face closer to his and locked lips with her and she willingly went along with it as the two of them began to kiss, and before you knew it, Moon Dancer was on top of Blitz with her hoofs around him as the two of them began to kiss with tongue as well now. Blitz pulled away before things got to heated and looked into her purple eyes and smiled. "Let's head back to town, the others are probably worried about me" he said as both he and she stood up blushing as they walked back down the path from which they came. As they were out of sight of the pool, some water in the center began to form into the head of a large snake smiling.

"Soon" he hissed as he reseeded back into the water.


	9. A Bad Deal

Twilight closed her book and looked up at the setting sun that turned the ocean an orange tint. She looked over to see Firestorm standing on the edge of the water with Rainbowdash beside him. After a long while of talking, he had finally calmed her down and she was leaning against him as they looked out at the ocean. The cutie mark crusaders asleep on the towel beside her, having tired themselves out from all the physical activity they did today. Fluttershy was feeding the seagulls some bread while Rarity was still hanging out with High Tide who was making her laugh by telling her some funny stories about stuff on the island. Pinkiepie and Applejack were sitting down playing a game of poker while using sea shells as chips.

"Blitz has been gone for awhile" Twilight pointed out.

"Yeah, hey Rainbow, where is that brother of yours?" Applejack said laying down her cards.

"Beats me, Firestorm said he was hanging out with some filly" she answered as she flew over to her friends. "He also said that apparently he and his sisters are considered gods on this island" Rainbowdash thought.

"Should I go look for him?" Firestorm said as he walked up behind Rainbowdash and rested across her back with both of his hoofs hanging off her right side.

"No need" a voice said from above them. All of them looked up to find Blitz flying with Moon Dancer beside him. He landed in front of his sister and looked at her with his new eyes to see a shocked look on her face. "So that's what you look like little sis, I can see why Firestorm is so attracted to you" he smiled as he looked at the alicorn resting on his sister. "You look just like I thought you would" he said as Firestorm smiled. "A hot headed punk with a funny hair cut" he said causing Firestorm's eye to twitch as his mane grew brighter and hotter as well as his tail.

"I swear if you weren't Dashy's brother, you would be so dead right now" Firestorm said with an eye twitch as his mane and tail went back to normal. All of them gathered around to see what had happened to Blitz's eyes.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" Twilight said to him as she looked at the crimson color of his eyes.

"For some reason he went to the healing pool and jumped in, several minutes later, he came out and he could see and after that…" she cut off her sentence and began to blush.

"So you told him to go in the pool?" Firestorm said intrigued.

"NO, I have no problem with him being blind, I thought we just got lost and ended up there" she answered as Blitz just smiled at her.

"There has to be some sort of catch" Applejack said tilting her hat back.

"Yeah, nothing good in this world is free, except free cupcakes!" Pinkie said.

"Nope nothing" Blitz said a bit nervous as his sister walked over to him and looked him in the face. "What?" he said even more nervous. Rainbowdash just shrugged and walked back over to Firestorm who was playing with Toby by tossing a little ball and having him fetch it.

'I have changed my mind, I want those jewels now!' a voice said in Blitz's head. He turned away from his friends and began to talk to himself.

"Fine, just hold up your end of the bargain" he whispered to himself as he flew up into the air and towards the harbor.

"Where is he going?" Twilight asked confused.

"I don't know, but I am gonna find out" Firestorm said as he motioned for Twilight to follow him down the beach. Rainbowdash and the others were about to follow but Firestorm turned to them and shook his head. They stopped dead in their tracks and just began to set up camp for the night, seeing as how they couldn't go back to the ship due to the fumes from the repair equipment Tinker was using. Toby slithered after his master and soon reached him and slithered into his mane and hid in there. "What is wrong with that pony?" Firestorm asked as he and Twilight galloped towards the docks where the ship floated.

Meanwhile on the ship, Blitz landed on the deck to find Tinker welding some sheet metal together. The earth pony raised his welding mask off of his face and looked at Blitz. "Sorry sir, you can't be on board the ship while repairs are going underway" the earth pony said as he stepping in front of the pegasus who was about to enter the door at the back of the ship.

"Move aside Tinker" Blitz said in a voice that wasn't his own. He opened his eyes to reveal his pupils to be changed into that like a snakes, and his dark blue coat began to harden into scales.

"No" the earth pony said as Blitz hiss at ham and knocked him aside with his wing, rendering him unconscious. Blitz walked into Firestorm's quarters and rummaged through all the cabinets and drawers until he found what he was looking for. He picked up the wooden lock box in his hoofs and smashed it against the ground, shattering it. He picked up the two spherical purple gems with his tale that had now mutated into a snake tail. Blitz walked out of Firestorms quarters to find Twilight and Firestorm standing across from him with confused looks on their faces.

"Who the fuck is that?" Twilight said disgusted at the way the abomination looked.

"I think it might be Blitz" Firestorm said as he picked up Tinker with a spell and laid him down on a table out of the way. "I knew something wasn't right about him earlier besides the fact that he could see" Firestorm said as he stretched out his wings, ready for a chase.

"Get out of my way" Blitz hissed as he stretched out his now scaled wings.

"Make me" Firestorm said as Blitz flew up in the air faster than he had ever seen him do before. "Damn it, Twilight hang on!" he said as he grabbed Twilight around the waist and flew up in the air after the pegasus/snake beast.

"He's fast" Twilight said holding on to Firestorms legs as Blitz swerved from side to side in the air like a snake does on the ground. Blitz turned his head to see them gaining on him, and he dove down into the jungle that he and Moon Dancer had went in earlier. The sun set when he went into the dark green foliage and the moon took the sky. "Damn it, he is going to be nearly impossible to find in the dark!" Twilight said as they landed where they had seen him enter.

"He couldn't have gotten far" Firestorm said as he looked on the wet ground for any signs of tracks. He found hoof prints that led to the east. He and Twilight followed them to a large waterfall and pool with a small bird bath in the center of it. They hid in the bushes and looked to see the snake like horse toss the two jewels into the water, causing it to glow a bright purple and bubble as the serpent in the hood rose from the water and slithered onto the land with the two gems in his head, serving as his eyes, which continued to glow brightly.

"You have been a useful tool in all of this" the serpent said as he removed his hood to reveal the three gems in his skull. He grew two arms with hands on each one, and claws on each finger. He places one on Blitz's face and ripped the scales and serpent like features off of him, returning him to normal but with eyes still crimson red. "Of course you were under my control most of the time so I can't exactly thank you, but I will hold up my end of the bargain, you can keep your sight" the snake smiled as Blitz passed out in front of him.

"Hold it right there!" Twilight said as she and Firestorm stepped out of the bush and approached the large serpent that was 20 feet long with purple and black scales. Even though it was on its stomach, the part of it that look most like his torso stood a good six feet off the ground.

"Well, looks like you some ponies follow you" the serpent hissed at the unconscious pegasus as he threw him to the side and into a puddle of mud beside the pool.

"Serpentine, you still up to your old tricks I see" Firestorm said to the snake who lowered his head to Firestorms level. Firestorm looked at the center of his forehead and saw another jewel of destruction. "It also seems that you found the jewel of wishes, one of the most powerful of the six" the alicorn said as the snake laughed.

"Yes, and with the help of these other two, I broke your binding spell that held me in that pool for so many fucking years!" Serpentine roared.

"Well I hate to tell you this, but you are going back in there" Firestorm smirked as he morphed into his enraged form and smiled evilly at the snake. "But before that I am gonna rip those jewels right out of your head!" he laughed as Serpentine backed up a bit from the now insane alicorn.

"Time for some payback" Serpentine hissed as he cracked his knuckles as Twilight also morphed into her green haired, green eyed enraged form. Blitz slowly came to and looked to see Firestorm and Twilight at a standoff with Serpentine.

"What have I gotten them into?" he groaned in pain as he slowly sat up from the mud puddle.


	10. Final Wish

Serpentine hissed and swung his tail at the two ponies, missing them completely. Firestorm laughed as he summoned a large human skull with fire coming from its eyes and mouth. He hurled the thing at Serpentine, having it bit down around the large snake and slam into the rack behind the waterfall. Twilight jumped on top of the skull and a black aura formed around her right hoof as she brought it back, having it form into a large claw. "Die" she said in a demonic voice as she slammed the large claw onto Serpentine, only to have it miss and hit the rocks being the waterfall that fell over her.

"Come out come out wherever you are" Firestorm smiled as he looked around him and then at his reflection in the water. He looked closer to see his eyes glowing purple and that he had fangs. Serpentine jumped from the water and grabbed Firestorm around his throat and slammed him into the ground, causing him to cough up blood. Twilight jumped up from behind Serpentine and slashed him across the back with the phantasmal claw she conjured and caused three large gashes across his mid back.

"Bitch" he said as he swung his tail and struck her across the face, sending her flying into the pool and skipping across the water like a stone and into the small bird batch, knocking her out cold once she hit the stone object.

"Never hit a lady" Firestorm growled as black spikes shot from the ground around him and at Serpentine. The snake let go of the alicorn and bent his body to dodge each and every spike as it shot out at him.

"It's just a little further" Moon Dancer's voice said from the jungle just a ways away from the fighting. The pegasus led Rainbowdash and the others towards the fighting and they stopped when they saw Twilight unconscious and Blitz struggling to get to his feet. She looked to see the now insane Firestorm fighting the large serpent and she froze dead in her tracks. "It's just like Blitz said" she shivered as the alicorn laughed as he dealt blow after blow to the snake.

"Shoot, we have to get Twilight out of the way and help him before some pony gets killed" Applejack said as she tore down a vine from a nearby tree and fashioned it into a lasso. She threw one end of the lasso and roped Twilight quickly pulled her to safety.

'Ok now we gotta help Blitz and Firestorm!" Pinkie said as she raised her hoof in the air. As they stood by and thought of a plan, Blitz managed to get to his feet and he looked to see Moon Dancer frozen in fear of Firestorm.

"Shit, Moon Dancer get out of here!" he called out getting Serpentine's attention. As the snake continued to dodge spell after spell, he smiled when he saw Moon Dancer. He slithered at super fast speeds past Firestorm and shot his tail out like a spear at Moon Dancer. Firestorm turned his head and saw what was happening and as he tried to run back and stop the snake, Serpentine landed his tail right between Moon Dancer's eyes, piercing her skull as if it were a watermelon. His tail stuck out of the back of her head, covered in blood and chunks of brain. The mare's body went limp as it collapsed to the ground with a sickening thud. Firestorm's eyes went back to normal as well as his mane, tail, and teeth.

"You sick bastard, why did you kill her, she wasn't even fighting!" Firestorm growled.

"Because I knew you would let your guard down if I did this" Serpentine smiled as he slithered around Firestorm and held him tight with his body, constricting him tight and tighter. The large snake hissed as the others stood by still trying to figure out what to do. "I am going to swallow you whole" he hissed as he coiled around him tighter. Rainbowdash saw this and flew at him, only to be swatted down like a fly by his tail.

"Rainbow!" Blitz called out as he looked at his fallen sister, and his dead love. The pegasus rose to his hoofs and with anger in his eyes. "First you kill Moon Dancer, and now you hurt my little sister?" he yelled at the serpent that shot him a glare. "You are going to die" he said as the snakes eyes glowed brightly which caused his vision to blur.

"If you even try to attack me, I will take my gift away from you" he hissed as Blitz continued to walk forward, and the more he did, the more of his vision faded.

"I would rather have my world be filled with darkness where I can see nothing, then for me to stand by and do nothing" he said as his red eyes faded back to grey and his hearing and other senses increased in sensitivity as he could see nothing, but hear everything.

"So be it" the snake hissed as he shot two bright purple beams from his eyes at Blitz who flew up in the air and dodged them.

"How is he able to sense what is going on?" Serpentine hisses as he felt his tail getting hotter.

"He could see even when he was blind, he only took your gift to see the ones he loved, even if it was just once" Firestorm said as his mane and tail grew bright and caused Serpentine to let go of him before he got burnt. He heard a loud boom in the sky and the snake looked up to see a ball of electricity coming straight at him. His eyes went wide as the ball made contact with him, charring the scale on his chest as he was flung back into the pool and the ball of electricity followed, sending sparks and light up from the pool, electrocuting Serpentine to such a degree that the scales on him that were purple, turned black and he floated to the surface, limp and lifeless, or so it seemed.

"Moon Dancer has been avenged" Blitz said as he swam to the surface and flew out of the water and looked at the body of the serpent. Firestorm picked him up with his magic and laid him down on the shore of the pool and looked to see him open his eyes. "How is he not dead?" Blitz said in amazement.

"These are how" Firestorm said as he pointed at the jewels and had the others hold the snake down as he stood over him and looked down at his face. "Now this is gonna hurt…allot" Firestorm said as a small skeletal hand came out of the ground and grabbed the jewel in the center of his skull. It pulled and pulled, and managed to yank it out of the crater in his forehead, causing some blood to squirt up and get in his face. "Now to take back what you stole" he said as the hand placed two fingers on top of his left eye and its thumb at the bottom. He spread his eyelid and dug the fingers into his skull, causing the ye to pop out like a cork on a champagne bottle. Firestorm held the blood soaked gem with the skeletal hand and put it in his wing with the other one. Blood poured from Serpentine's eye, causing Rarity to gag and Applejack to look away as they held him still.

"That's nasty" Applejack said as the hand moved towards the serpent's right eye. It positioned its fingers and popped the other eye out and put it inside of Firestorms wing. With blood filling the holes in the snake's skull, Firestorm looked at Rarity with blood on his face and began to speak.

"Do you have a sewing kit?" he spoke in a tone that showed no sign of emotion. She nodded and pulled out some white thread and a needle, she used her magic to get the need ready for him to use. Firestorm took the needle and proceeded to sew the snake's eyelids together, trapping the blood inside of his skull. He also sewed his mouth shut so he couldn't speak anymore. He looked like something out of slasher film as Firestorm sat him up and tied him up with a vine and sat him near the edge of the pool.

"What are we going to do with him?" Rainbowdash asked as she held Twilight up with her wing.

"I have an idea" Blitz said as he kicked Serpentine into the pool from which he came. Bubbles floated up as well as blood as the snake floated down to the bottom. "Now stay there" he said. Days past until the ship was repaired, and a funeral was held for Moon Dancer, for which the whole island attended, and the group of friends were ready to set sail once more. Rarity walked up the ramp onto the ship but was stopped halfway by a voice calling out to her; she turned to see High Tide standing on the dock.

"Rarity, I just wanted to say that…" he was cut off by a kiss to the cheek. He looked to see it was Rarity who kissed him. "Rarity?" he said blushing and confused.

"Be sure to write wont you" she smiled as she walked back onto the ship and it was dragged out into deeper water by some pegasi. It soon dropped its sails and continued to sail east. During all this, Firestorm sat with Twilight Sparkle in his quarters with a map in front of him.

"So where to now?" she asked.

"Well from wheat I can tell, each jewel seems to have gone back to the temple or shrine of its origin. That's what that birdbath was that you slammed into, so the closest one to us is right here" he said putting his hoof on part of the map that had a small diamond shaped island on it.

"Which one is there?" she asked him.

"The jewel of decay, and if I am not mistaken, it should be in the temple in the center of the island" Firestorm spoke as Pathfinder walked in.

"Where to sir?" he asked.

"Set course for the Island of the Black Sun" he ordered to the pegasus who saluted him and walked out.


	11. Island of the Black Sun

"Hey Rainbow, how is your brother holding up?" Applejack asked leaning on the hoof rail of the ship.

"He hasn't said a word since we left the island, at least not to me, the only one he talks to is Firestorm and its usually for only short periods of time" she sighed as she preened her feathers with her teeth.

"Well what can you expect, a pony he just fell in love with killed before his very eyes, it would take an affect on even the strongest of us" Rarity added as she walked on deck past several sailors with a sun hat on.

"We need to just give him some space until he calms down" Twilight added as she teleported down from the crow's nest of the ship. Twilight looked over at Pathfinder who was steering the ship with Firestorm sitting behind him playing with Toby.

"Well I still want to talk to him after we drop anchor" Rainbowdash said stretching her wings as the cutie mark crusaders cleaned the deck of the ship.

"Talk to me about what?" Blitz asked as he came out from behind the mast with his goggles on.

"Oh about um…" Rainbowdash hadn't had enough time to think up how he was going to talk to him about Moon Dancer dying. She was silent a moment and just as she opened her mouth an island came into view.

"LAND HO!" Pathfinder yelled across the ship as Firestorm looked up from Toby and towards the jungle covered island with a large mountain in the center of it. "Drop anchor lads, Firestorm and the ladies are going on shore to find the jewel, the rest of us are to stay here!" Pathfinder ordered as Firestorm got up and Toby slithered onto his back. The alicorn went into his quarters and came out in a set of leather armor with a sword and a machete strapped to his back. Rainbowdash looked to see him with a leather saddle, leg guards that covered the front lower part of each of his legs. The rest of his armor covered less of his body then his gold armor does so it was more travel friendly.

"Firestorm doesn't look half bad in all leather" Rarity giggled as she nudged Rainbowdash with her hoof causing her to blush.

"Let's go girls" he said as a small life boat was lowered into the water with two oars in it. Firestorm let Twilight and her friends in first but held his hoof out to stop Applebloom and her friends from coming along. "Sorry fillies, but you can't come along on this one" he spoke softly as they went back to cleaning. "Blitz and Pathfinder are in charge while I am gone!" he said to his crew who nodded and went about their business. Firestorm jumped down into the boat, shaking it a bit.

"Well let's get rowin'!" Applejack said as she grabbed the two oars and started to paddle them closer to the island. Rainbowdash sat beside Firestorm with her hoofs crossed and a bored look on her face as they moved slowly along.

"This is going to take forever!" Rainbowdash said as she flew up and grabbed the back of the boat with her front hoofs and flapped her wings as fast as she could, propelling the boat forward at just a little over 50 mph. The little boat reached the point outside of the island where the waves started to peak and crash down before rolling in towards the land.

"Um, Rainbowdash I think you might wanna slow down!" Fluttershy said as loud at her voice would let her. Rainbowdash narrowed her eyes, focusing on the large wave forming in front of them, she flapped her wings faster and faster until she jumped the wave as if were a ramp.

"WEEEEEEEE!" Pinkie said as they flew through the air and crashed on the sandy shore, sending all of them out of the boat and into a large pile. They groaned as the back end of the boat stuck out from the sand. Firestorm opened his eyes to find Twilight's back side hanging over his face and he turned a bright shade of red. Toby slithered out of his mane and shook the sand off of his scale and slithered over Twilight's plot, causing her to laugh.

"T-that tickles!"" she laughed as the reptile slithered off of the pile of ponies. Rainbowdash dug her head out of the sand and looked over to see Firestorm under the pile of her friends with Twilight's private parts over his face.

"Girls, mind getting off Firestorm?" Rainbowdash growled as Applejack crawled out of the pile and picked her hat of up out of the sand and dusted it off before she put it right back on her head.

"Come on gals, best get off her man before she gets pissed" the orange earth pony laughed as they got off of him one by one. Twilight sat up and accidently slid back on Firestorms face causing him to turn an even bright shade of red as Rainbowdash pushed her off of him and sat him up.

"That was…awkward" he said with his face still red as Toby slithered up his back and on top of his head.

"I am sooooo sorry your highness" Twilight apologized as Firestorm tried not to make eye contact with her.

"Its fine Twilight, it wasn't you that crashed the boat that caused that to happen" he said shooting Rainbowdash a look only to have her punch him in the shoulder which didn't hurt that much because of the leather armor he was wearing. "Well I suppose we better get moving" Firestorm said popping his neck and pulling out the machete with his magic as he walked to the edge of the jungle which was covered with overgrowth. "Follow me girls, we have a ways to go before we reach the temple of black sun" he said as he swung the blade, chopping through the plants with ease.

"Why is this place called The Island of the Black Sun?" Twilight asked as she followed Firestorm with her friends close behind her.

"This island is special, solar eclipses happen more often than ponies think, but they rarely happen over major cities which are when we have the solar eclipse festival. This island has a solar eclipse at least 3 times a year, more often than any other place in the world, thus giving it its name. The natives of the island were unicorn necromancers that disappeared mysteriously over 400 years ago after they built a temple to harness the power of the eclipse to resurrect the dead. This is also the birth place of the jewel of decay, which the temple was built around, it is a little bird bath like the one at the other island. They also tried to recreate the jewel with the sun's power, but failed since I had all of the jewels at the time." he said as he slashed through a web of vines that hung from the trees. Toby poked his head out from Firestorm mane to look around at the jungle.

"So no pony knows what happened to the unicorns here?" Rarity asked.

"I am afraid not, after they vanished, their souls never came to the land of the dead so that leads me to assume that they might still be here on the island, waiting for something." Firestorm answered as he used his magic to hurl a large boulder out of the way.

"What if whatever got them is still here to?" Fluttershy said shaking.

"It just might be" Twilight said to herself.


	12. Forgotten City

The group walked further and further into the jungle, hearing multiple animal noises as they walked. Fluttershy stopped and smiled when she saw a small dark blue bird sitting on a tree branch. She admired it in awe for she had never seen such a bird before. Her expression quickly changed when a large snake slithered around the branch and snatched the bird in its mouth, causing several dark blue feathers to fall on the ground in front of her. "EEP!" she squeaked as she sprinted after group and ran into the back of Applejack who just looked at her confused.

"Easy there Sugarcube" she said walking beside the startled pegasus as Firestorm continued to slash through the vines and leaves.

"How much longer do we have to walk? My hooves are killing me" Rarity asked as Firestorm who just turned to her and hurled the machete in her direction. Her eyes went wide as the blade flew at her, it zipped past her face and into a large plant that looked like a Venus fly trap only the size of a small car and with razor sharp teeth. The unicorn looked at the plant as it bled a light green sap like substance.

"What in the hell is that?" Applejack asked as she and the others looked at the now dead plant.

"That's the pony eating jungle snap" Firestorm said as he pulled the blade out of the head of the monster and wiped the blood on a nearby rock. "Keep your eyes open or else one of these things, or something worse gets you" Firestorm said as he walked forward closer to the mountain. They looked to see where Firestorm wiped the green blood on the rock, was now covered in flowers.

"It takes life while alive, but gives it when death creeps over" Rarity said in a poetic like voice as the corpse of the plant rotted away before their very eyes.

"Are you girls just gonna stand around all day and open yourself up to predators?" Rainbowdash said from behind Firestorm as her friends ran forward to catch up with them. Light shown through the trees as Firestorm cut through the tree line and they all overlook a large canyon at the foot of the mountain. Inside were large temples and tombs, several stories in height, it was almost like a little city with several stone huts that had vines growing over several of them.

"What is this place?" Twilight asked as she looked at the largest stone building in the center of the city. It stood 80 stories in height and looked similar to a Mayan temple. In the center of it was a large stair case with a door halfway up the temple. The door was made of two rectangular stone blocks at least ten feet high and 5 feet wide each.

"The ancient city of the Eclipse" Firestorm said as he looked at the statue at the top of the temple of the sun and the moon side by side. "I think the jewel might be in the main temple, but we need to get in, grab it, and get out as quick as possible. There is no telling what could still be lurking here" Firestorm said as Toby coiled around his horn a bit.

"Um, I don't see a path down there" Applejack said looking around the perimeter of the canyon.

"Well then I guess we have to make one" Firestorm said as he stomped his hoof down just at the edge of the canyon, causing stairs to shoot out of the walls. "Mares first" he said stepping aside as he sheathed his machete. Twilight went down first, followed by Rarity, then Pinkiepie, then Rainbowdash who just flew down, and finally Applejack. Fluttershy stood at the top of the stairs with her knees shaking. "Are you alright Fluttershy?" Firestorm asked concerned.

"I'm s-scared to go down there" she shuddered as he wrapped a wing around her.

"You have nothing to worry about Fluttershy, your friends and I are going to protect you" he smiled as Toby slithered out of his mane and into hers as he wrapped around her neck and rubbed his head against her cheek, causing her to smile and calm down. "IF it makes you feel any better, I can let Toby stay with you until we leave, how does that sound?" he spoke softly to the yellow pegasus under his wing.

"Um, ok" she smiled weakly as he let her go down the stairs first with Toby wrapped loosely around her neck and resting his head on top of hers. Firestorm walked close behind until they reached the bottom with the others. Firestorm stamped his hoof once more, causing the steps to go back into the wall of the canyon.

"Don't want any wild animals coming down in here" he said as he looked at the carvings on the walls of the necromancer city.

"This place it kinda creepy" Rainbowdash shivered as they walked forward through the stone streets of the city.

"Are you scared Rainbowdash?" Pinkie smirked.

"Me? Scared? Highly unlikely" she said smugly as Firestorm made a small skeletal hand come out of the ground behind her and grab her flank, causing her to scream and fall over like one of those fainting goats.

"Gotcha" Firestorm laughed as Rainbowdash blushed from embarrassment as her friends laughed. They walked into what looked like a market place; some of the vendors had animal bones on the shelves.

"What on earth were they selling here?" Rarity gasped as she saw that they were pig bones.

"Oh yeah, the unicorn natives were carnivores" Firestorm said looking back at them.

"Carnivals? You mean they were a bunch of circus performers?" Pinkie smiled.

"No Pinkiepie, carnivores, it means that they ate meat" Twilight said as they passed several pony skeletons and stopped to look at them. "Well one thing is for sure, they are defiantly dead" Twilight said as she looked at a puzzled Firestorm.

"There must be something keeping them here, their souls I mean, some sort of hex maybe?" he pondered as they continued to walk.

"So you're saying that their...ghosts are still here?" Fluttershy gulped as she hid under Firestorms wing.

"In short, yes" he said as Toby tried to comfort Fluttershy.

"Ghosts my hoof, that there is nothing but an old pony's tale" Applejack said as they went deeper and deeper into the city. They were now in the graveyard district from what they could tell by the mausoleums and above ground graves.

"Something is defiantly off here" Firestorm said to himself as they approached a statue of Death; a large skeletal alicorn that wore a black robe and carried a large scythe in his right hoof with a chain with a head on one end in his mouth. "If only you could be here to help me right now old friend" he said as they walked past the statue.

"Um, who is he talkin' bout?" Applejack whispered to Twilight Sparkle.

"He is talking about him" Twilight said pointing at the statue of the skeletal alicorn.

"Shit, that Firestorm may be one of the sweetest ponies at times, but other times he can just be kind of dark and twisted" Applejack said tilting her hat forward. As they progressed further through the city, they came to the base of the stairs of the large temple that was even large up close.

"Holy shit" all the girls said in awe the sheer size of the structure. They looked to see Firestorm climbing the steps.

"Come on girls, this isn't a place for sightseeing" he said as they ran up after him.


	13. Grave Encounters

The group approached the large stone doors to find them sealed shut. Firestorm examined the door and ran his hoof across the engraved picture of the moon blotting out the sun. "Well it looks like we can't get in this way" Twilight said as she looked around for another entrance.

"Well is we can't open it normally, I guess we have to break it down" Applejack said as she backed up to the door and bucked it with all of her strength. After a few seconds, a crack formed and quickly spread across the left door, causing it to fall to pieces, sending up a cloud of dust.

"Well that's one way to open a door" Firestorm chuckled as his horn began to glow a bright red, illuminating the inside of the dark stone passage.

"This is just like one of the Daring Do books!" Rainbowdash said with a squeal of excitement. Twilight and Rarity also lit up their horns, Twilight's glowed purple, while Rarity's glowed a bright blue.

"Stick together, there is no telling what could be in here" Firestorm said as a cold wind blew over them, followed by a high pitched scream from deep inside the temple. Fluttershy froze in terror at hearing this but soon comforted by Toby who was still in her mane. Rainbowdash nudged her nervous friend forward, deeper into the dark.

"I wish it wasn't so fucking dark in here" Rainbow said as Firestorm stopped them all from taking another step.

"Is something wrong?" Pinkie asked as she squinted to see through the dark. Firestorm formed a fireball on his horn and shot it on a hoof rail that was filled with some sort of squishy substance. The substance lit up and caused the flame to go further and further down the passageway, lighting up a series of torches and lanterns, illuminating the cob web filled temple.

"Whoa" Rainbowdash said as she looked at the carving on the walls of what appeared to be battles of times of old. Statues of unicorns decorated the room with several door ways that led to different parts of the temple.

"Which way do we go?" Twilight asked looking at the three passageways. They all walked further into the room only to a have a large stone block slide down and block the entrance, blocking their way out. "Shit, it looks like we can't go back that way" she said as Firestorm looked at the doors on each side of the room.

"We should split up into groups to cover more ground" Firestorm said as he turned to the girls. "Fluttershy and Rainbowdash will come with me down the path at the head of the room. Twilight and Rarity go down the left passageway, while Applejack and Pinkiepie go down the right passageway, got it?" he asked as they nodded in agreement. The friends split up into groups and went their separate ways. Rainbowdash, Fluttershy and Firestorm went down the passage at the head of the room. They walked down the hall that was decorated with pony skeletons hanging from the walls by chains. Twilight and Rarity walked down the passageway with statues of unicorns on the sides. Applejack and Pinkie walked down the path with lanterns hanging from the ceiling. As they all walked past their doors, the doors slammed shut and faded away into the stone walls.

In Twilight and Rarity's group, they looked back in shock that the door disappeared. "Well that is not good" Rarity spoke as the continued to walk forward.

"Stay focused Rarity, there is no telling what might be in here" Twilight said as rattling was heard up ahead. "Did you hear that?" she spoke swiftly in a hushed tone.

"Hear what?" Rarity asked as the rattling grew closer and closer. "Now I hear it but what is it?" she whispered as Twilight shot a ball of light forward, lighting up the dark passage more. Several unicorn skeletons were walking around in front of them and they turned their heads and hissed when they saw the ball of light.

"Dear sweet Celestia" Twilight muttered as the undead ponies limped towards their direction. "Rarity, whatever you do, don't scre…" she was cut off by Rarity letting out a high pitched scream that made her ears hurt. The skeletons went from a limp to a sprint in a heartbeat, and they set their sights on the two unicorns.

"Run…please…we don't want to do this!" one of them moaned as he shot a spell at Rarity, only to have it block by a pink force field Twilight had conjured up. "Kill us…please!" the other one moaned as Twilight shot a fireball at one of them, causing the skeleton to explode, sending his bones in ever which direction. Rarity hurled a rock at the other one, knocking his skull off and causing his body to collapse to the floor. Two glowing blue balls floated up from the corpses and were sucked deeper into the tomb by some unknown force.

"That was rather odd" Rarity said as she and Twilight went deeper into the temple. After several more steps, a trap door opened up and both of the unicorns fell through screaming as they slid down the passage into some unknown part of the structure.

Meanwhile, Applejack and Pinkie had run into a predicament. They had come to a locked puzzle door and they couldn't figure out the combination. The door had six square holes in it and lying around the room were six square puzzle pieces, each one with a bit of a carving on it. "How in tarnation are we supposed to figure out this thing?" Applejack asked as Pinkie dragged over the pieces.

"Maybe we have to make a picture out of them" Pinkie suggested at she threw the pieces into different holes until she made what looked like a crudely drawn cupcake.

"Um, Pinkiepie, I don't think the code for a door in a city of necromancers would be a cupcake" Applejack said as she face hoofed.

"But every pony likes cupcakes, even necromancers must like them!" she said as she bounced up and down. Applejack just shook her head and laughed as she took down the pieces and put them back up in a different order, forming a skull of a pony. 'That looks kinda creepy" Pinkie said as several loud thuds were heard and the door shifted, sending down some dust as it slid back and then into the floor, opening a way into a room filled with darkness.

"Hell, it actually worked" Applejack laughed as she walked forward into the darkness, only to fall down a hole and land on a slide just like Twilight and Rarity had, she slid down screaming and holding onto her hat.

"Hey wait for me!" Pinkie said as she jumped down after her friend.

Meanwhile, Firestorm, Rainbowdash, Fluttershy and Toby all were in a large empty room with no doors to be seen; only a giant circle that looked like some ancient calendar on the floor. "Well this was a dead end" Firestorm said kicking the wall.

"Hold on, I have read enough Daring Do books to know there has to be some secret passage somewhere" Rainbowdash said as she flew around the room looking for something.

"Didn't some trap get sprung every time she found one of them?" Fluttershy added.

"Yeah but that is what made it awesome!" Rainbow said enthusiastically. Fluttershy sighed and sat down on the center of the calendar looking thing. As her flank made contact with the stone floor, it shifted a bit, causing dust to shoot up from the gaps in between each of circles of the calendar.

"I think Fluttershy found something" Firestorm said as he walked over to the calendar and rubbed his hoof across the outer ring of the circle, causing it to turn a bit. "I think we need to adjust the calendar to the right positions" he said as he twirled the outer ring until it came to a dead stop in a different position.

"So it's like a big combination lock?" Rainbowdash asked as she turned the second ring into a position to where it wouldn't move any further.

"Pretty much, good job Fluttershy" Firestorm smiled causing the yellow pegasus to blush. Firestorm turned the last dial and the ground beneath them broke and they fell through and slid down a slide. They were going way too fast for them to use their wings to slow down with breaking them. "Hang on!" Firestorm said holding on to Rainbowdash and Fluttershy as they slid into darkness.


	14. Left to Rot

Rainbowdash and Fluttershy held on to Firestorm for dear life as they continued to slide down the chute. They came to the end of the slid and flew into a pile of skulls and various other skeletal parts. "Oh my back" Firestorm groaned as he opened his eyes to find Rainbowdash's flank on his face. "Well this is a new position" he laughed as Fluttershy stood up and checked on Toby to make sure he was ok.

"Toby, are you ok?" she said in her soft voice as the cobra slithered out of her mane and shook his head as his eyes spun around. "Oh thank goodness' she sighed as Rainbowdash still sat on Firestorm's face with her eyes rolling around.

"That was not fun" she groaned as she looked down to see a red mane sticking out from under her flank. "Oh shit!" she said as she flew off of Firestorm who sat up and looked around to find they were in some sort of trap.

"Well it seems we are in deep shit" he said. Several more screams were heard from two different chutes around them. First Twilight and Rarity flew from the one on the left and slammed into Rainbowdash, knocking all of them to the ground.

"Welcome to the party!" Firestorm said sarcastically as he helped the two unicorns to their hoofs and dusted them off with his wings.

"So how did you two end up here?" Rainbow asked as she fixed some of her bent feathers.

"Well we found and fought some…" Twilight was cut off mid sentence by two more screams coming from the chute on the right.

"I got 'em!" Firestorm said as he held out his wings to catch the two mares as they flew through the chute and he caught them with his golden blonde feathers wings.

"Much obliged partner" Applejack said tilting her hat to him as he sat them down.

"That was fun; can we do it again huh? Can we can we!" Pinkie said enthusiastically.

"Are you insane?" Applejack asked.

"Of course not, my parents had me tested" she laughed as Twilight rolled her eyes and walked over to Firestorm who was punching the wall with his hoof.

"As I was saying, Rarity and I came across walking skeletons" she said causing Firestorm to stop punching the wall. "They said they didn't want to do this, and then they asked us to kill them while they were attacking us."

"Then what happened?" he asked as the others tried to find a way out of the room they were in.

"Rarity and I broke apart the skeletons and two little blue orbs floated up from them and got sucked away by something, then we fell through a trap door and ended up here" Twilight answered as Firestorm leaned against the stone wall.

"That is odd, I think something might be holding their spirits here" he said as he pulled out the katana shaped sword on his back and stabbed it between two bricks on the wall, causing one of them to shift and fall down. As it hit the bone covered floor, a gust of air blew in from the other side, as well as a purple light and a faint buzzing noise. He sheathed the sword and walked over to Applejack. "Would you be so kind as to make the hole in that wall bigger?" he asked the blonde pony.

"It would be my pleasure" she said walking over to the hole in the wall. She hopped up on her front legs and slammed her back hoofs into the wall, causing more blocks to fall out of place, and creating a make-shift doorway large enough for them to fit through. "Lets get movin' every pony so we can get the hell out of here" Applejack said leading the way into another room that was illuminated by an unknown purple light.

"It's just one room after another with this place" Rainbowdash groaned as she flew slowly through the air above the others. They entered the room to find a small pyramid with a bird bath on the top of it from which the light was coming from.

"Bingo" Firestorm said as he walked up the stone steps of the structure and picked up the jewel with his magic and tucked it into his wing.

"Hold it; normally something bad happens after the treasure is taken" Rainbowdash said holding out her hoofs to tell everyone to hold still while she looked around the room for anything out of place. "That's weird" she said scratching her head with her hoof.

"I think you need to stop reading those books Dashy" Firestorm laughed as the bird bath went down into the pyramid, making the bussing noise louder. "Or maybe not" he said as one of the nearby walls collapsed and a room was revealed. Inside was a black unicorn with a white mane, pointed horn and a skull cutie mark. He floated in the center of the room over some sort of pit with green energy like substance coming from him.

"Well that is really odd" Twilight said as they walked into the room. As they entered, the pony opened one eye and looked at them through his solid black eye.

"What are you doing here, explain yourselves!" he said in a raspy voice that sounded like an old man's voice with a hint of anger in it.

"I should be asking you the same thing kid" Firestorm said as he walked closer to the pony who laughed.

"Kid? I am over 500 years in age you whelp!" he growled causing the room to shake.

"I may not look it but, I am pretty old myself" Firestorm chuckled as he skeletons at the bottom of the pit.

"How old is he anyway?" Rarity asked Rainbowdash.

"I think 5023 years old, but he doesn't age, he stays young like Celestia and Luna" she whispered back.

"Tell me something" the pony began, "Who are you, the one with the red mane" he said pointing a hoof.

"My name is Prince Firestorm, and I know what you are doing here and it is a disgrace to the laws of nature" he growled as black slowly started to cover the white of his eyes and his irises turned red. He smiled showing his sharp teeth to the ancient pony.

"Disgrace? This is a blessing, immortality if you would put it that way" he laughed as he landed across from Firestorm with the energy still coming from him. "The body decays and rots away over time but the soul is eternal, that is why we put a spell on the island, blocking death from ever entering and taking our souls to the land of the dead. We will be here forever and ever" he laughed.

"Then explain the cemetery!" Twilight jumped in.

"Simply a place to lay the bodies, the souls stay here and work, never growing tired or hungry like the living. I use my power to keep the barrier up, forbidding Death from ever entering this place!" he laughed as the coffins behind him opened and hundreds of spectral ponies stepped out with phantasmal weapons in their mouths.

"They don't want to stay! They want to pass on to the next life!" Firestorm growled.

"They are ignorant, so I also control everything they do so they don't try to leave the island and pass on" he smiled as his small army assembled behind him.

"Well then I guess I have to drag you down to hell to set the rest of them free, FINE BY ME!" Firestorm said in his insane voice as he flew forward and planted a hoof on the ponies face. "Twilight, get the others out of here now! I will catch up!" he yelled as the unicorn teleported them out of the monument and into the town as shaking of the ground occurred.

"What the hell Twilight, we need to stay and help him!" Rainbowdash said about to fly back in.

"NO we will just get in his way, right now we need to get back to the boat!" the unicorn said sternly as she and her friends came back to where they had came in. Twilight stomped both of her hoofs on the ground, causing the stone staircase to come out again. She and he friends ran out of the crater as the buildings began to collapse.

"Run for your lives!" Pinkie screamed as she sprinted back to the beach and pushed the boat in the water with her friends close behind her. "Come one every pony!" she yelled as they all hopped in the row boat and paddled back out to open water, closer to the ship where the whole crew stood on deck watching them paddle closer.

"Where is Firestorm?" Fluttershy said as Toby stuck his head out of her mane with a tear forming in his eye as he looked at the island. A large explosion occurred at the base of the mountain, sending up smoke and fire.

"Holy shit!" Rainbowdash said as she saw what looked like debris flying at them. "Incoming!" she said as the smoking ball landed in the water and sent up a sequence of waves that rocked their little boat. Firestorm stuck his head up from the water with ask covering parts of his face.

"He's alive!" Rarity said in amazement as the alicorn swam towards them and was helped into the row boat. "What in Equestria happened?" she asked him as he tried to catch his breath.

"Dumbass back there had his own army turn on him for imprisoning them for so long, I didn't even have to a thing" he laughed as water dripped from his body as they floated beside the larger ship.

"Well what was that explosion?" Applejack asked.

"Oh that was actually him, he blew himself up, what a dumbass" he laughed as they were raised out of the water and into the larger ship. "Ok men, get us the hell out of here and head to Saddle Arabia. And some pony get me a fucking drink!" he ordered as he and Rainbowdash walked into his quarters. She laid him down on the bed and the punched him in the chest, which was now un protected since his armor blew off him.

"You idiot, what if you had gotten killed?" she said to the laughing alicorn who just grabbed her with his front hoofs and began to kiss her. She just rolled her eyes and kissed him back as Toby slithered in and laid down in his bed.


	15. Nothing but Sand

Pathfinder steered the ship with his eyes half open and the moon hanging over head. Twilight walked up the steps and stood beside him as he turned the wheel slightly to the right. He looked at the unicorn and just pulled out a cigarette and held it in his mouth as he looked through his wing for a light. "Allow me" Twilight said as she pressed her horn against the end of the cigarette, lighting it.

"Much obliged lass" Pathfinder smiled as he inhaled the flavor of the smoke. "What are ya doin' up this late anyway? You should go to bed, a little filly like yourself needs her rest" he said softly in his Trottish accent.

"Couldn't sleep, so I came out here to look at the stars, and I am not a little filly, I a grown mare" she laughed as she looked up at the stars that dotted the night sky.

"Aye, my apologies miss" Pathfinder chuckled as ash fell off the end of his cigarette. "So what do you know about Firestorm? Even though I have known him for 6 months now and he calls me his friend, he is very secretive sometimes; I even caught him talking to someone that wasn't there" Pathfinder shivered.

"Well, the only two ponies he ever opens up to are Blitz and Rainbowdash, so what you know is also what I know" Twilight shrugged as she looked ahead on the moon lit water and saw a large rock with a sign on it. "What is that?" she said trying to read it.

"It is a warning, that we are now entering Saddle Arabian territory" Pathfinder said as he spat the butt of the cigarette over the edge of the boat and into the water. "It's just to tell us that we nearing land, since they don't have a lighthouse set up and that we need to be careful" he smiled as he tapped his back foot on the floor below him 5 times.

"What is it?" Firestorm groaned as he sat up from his bed with Rainbowdash beside him. He slowly walked outside and looked up at Pathfinder. "What the fuck dude, I was asleep" he groaned as Pathfinder just nodded at him. "Fine" Firestorm said as he shot a flare up in the air with his horn. A response flare was shot up from the shore, which was still hidden in darkness but soon lit up with orange and yellow lights. "I'm going back to bed" Firestorm said as he walked back into his room and closed the door. Several smaller boats came out and pulled the ship into port. These boats were more advanced and had steam engines powering them instead of sails.

"If I were you, I would get some shut eye, you got a long trip in the morning" Pathfinder said as he went down and tied the boat to the dock. Twilight shrugged and went back to bed.

Morning came and Twilight awoke to the sun shining brightly through the window in her and her friend's room. "Dear Celestia that is bright" she said to herself as she closed the blinds and waked her friends. "Come on every pony, we gotta meet Firestorm and Blitz to find the next jewel" she said pulling the covers off of each of them.

"Fine" Rarity groaned as she sat up with her hair a mess. Pathfinder knocked on the door then entered with a basket on his back with white garments inside of the golden wicker basket.

"Alright ladies, these are the outfits you will be wearing the rest of your stay in Saddle Arabia. This country has a law that all mares must cover themselves when in public, or else face death" Pathfinder said sternly as he gave all of them solid white cloaks that covered most of their body except their hoofs and tails. Fluttershy was given a special one so her wings could stick out and she could fly if she wanted to. "I would suggest putting these on as well" he said giving each of them white hoods with veils over the front that allowed only their eyes to be seen.

"I can't be seen in this, I need to make a few adjustments to my outfit" Rarity said as she reached in her suitcase and pulled out some gold jewelry and gems.

"Let's go outside and meet up with Firestorm and Blitz" Twilight said as she fastened the veil in place as they went outside on the deck of the ship to see Blitz in a white loosely wrapped turban with a tan saddle bag across his back.

"Hey where is Rainbow?" Applejack asked as she put her hat on top of her head dress.

"Right here" Rainbowdash groaned as she walked out in the same outfit as them but with a look of irritation in her eyes. "This is stupid and pointless" she groaned as some of her mane hung out from her head dress.

"Don't worry Dashy, you only have to wear this when we are in town" Firestorm smiled as he walked up behind her with two wide black leather straps wrapped around his body with forming an X on his mid back and chest. Where each of the straps crossed each other, there was a golden metal plate holding them together. Strapped on his back was two short swords in brown and gold sheathes. Around his head was a white cowl with a mask that he had pulled off for the moment.

"But still this is pretty stupid" she mumbled as he just patted her on the back with his hoof.

"Come her girls, Tinker gave me something to give to each of you" Firestorm said as Toby poked his head out from inside Firestorm's cowl with a little turban on top of his head as well. Firestorm picked up a nearby box and opened it to reveal some sort of weapon that strapped around ones front hoof. "This is a dangerous place, so Tinker made this hidden hoof blades for you girls" he said as he strapped on onto Rainbowdash's front right hoof and she looked at it puzzled. "Flick your hoof" he said to her. She did and a 6 inch blade shot out from the mechanism and shined in the bright sun. "It has been laced in Toby's venom, so one cut is enough to kill, so be very careful with it, I only have a limited amount of anti venom in Blitz's saddle bag" he said pointing to the dark blue pegasus. Rainbowdash flicked her hoof again, causing the blade to retract.

"Now this is cool" she smirked as the others strapped theirs on as well.

"Where are we going exactly?" Pinkie asked as part of her pink curly mane stuck out from the back of her headdress.

"I am glad you asked Ms. Pie" Firestorm said as he led them off the boat with Blitz taking up the rear of the group. "In the middle of the Saddle Arabian desert, lies The Temple of False Whispers, in there is the birth place of the jewel of lies, the fifth jewel on the list." He said as he led the way through the small town with several stallions eyeing the mares that Blitz and Firestorm were escorting.

"You there, stop for a moment!" a male voice called out from behind Blitz. A tan earth pony with a black mane and faded yellow vest walked up to them. "Excuse me, but I will give you 4000 bits for the one with the rainbow tail" he offered making Blitz's face turn red with anger. The pegasus pinned the pony to the wall with his hoof and growled at him.

"Just who do you think you are, offering 400 bits for my little sister?" he growled.

"I am so sorry, what about 6000 bits?" the pony said sweating out of nervousness. Blitz raised his hoof to punch the earth pony in the face but stopped when he felt something cold press against his throat.

"That's enough Blitz" Firestorm spoke as he held the sword to Blitz's throat with his magic, making him let go if the scared earth pony. The tan pony ran away and Blitz mumbled to himself as Firestorm sheathed his sword. "Don't be so rash, mares have little to no rights here, don't go killing some pony because they offered to buy one of them" he said as he continued to walk down the street made of compacted sand.

"Fine" he mumbled as he took his position at the back of the group again.

"Can we hurry up and get to that temple place? I want to get out of this town so I can take off this stupid head dress" Rainbowdash grumbled.

"Calm yourself Rainbowdash, look in front of you" Firestorm said as they group looked out at the large desert filled with sand dunes as tall as houses. "We better get moving before the towns police force shows up for Blitz about killing some pony" Firestorm said as he galloped out into the sand with his friends close behind him.

"Finally I can take this off" Rainbowdash said as she slid the hood down and took off the face mask and so did the others as they ran through the hot desert. "This place is nothing but sand" Rainbowdash said as they slid down the side of one of the dunes.


	16. History Lesson

As the sun beat down on the white sand of the Saddle Arabian desert, Twilight and her friends continued to walk forward through the sea of sand. Twilight looked in front of her to see Firestorm stop dead in his tracks on top of a large sand dune that overlooked a large flat and compacted area of land covered in cracks. "Why are we stopping?" Twilight asked as she saw him staring at the open area of land.

"We are here" he said to the confused group of ponies behind him.

"I think the heat is starting to get to your head Sugarcube" Applejack said as she held her hat to her head with his hoof.

"Don't let your eyes deceive you" Firestorm said as he slid down the side of the dune and stood at the edge of the flat land. The alicorn walked forward and disappeared from their view within only a couple steps.

"Where did he go?" Rainbowdash asked puzzled as she flew down to where Firestorm disappeared. The alicorn's head reappeared and around it was some sort of rippling effect.

"Come on every pony, we can't stand around her all day" he said as they all slid down the dune and looked at his head that looked like it was floating.

"HOLY SHIT, HIS BODY IS GONE!" Pinkie gasped.

"Not quite, the temple has a barrier spell around it that just makes it look like nothing but flat land" he said shaking his head.

"What is with all these temples and magic areas around all of them gems? We have been hunting these things for 2 months now and we don't even know anything about them!" Twilight pointed out to the shocked alicorn.

"Well I guess I better tell you the entire story behind the jewels of destruction" Firestorm sighed as he walked out completely from the barrier and sat down in the sand in front of all of them. "You all might wanna take a seat for this story, its long one" he sighed as they all sat down in the sand. "Long ago in the time when Discord ruled Equestria and caused unimaginable chaos, he realized something. His powers could only reach as far as the borders of Equestria so to increase the reach of his power, he created the 6 six jewels of destruction. Each jewel is an aspect of chaos that when brought together at once, create nothing but pure destruction which is the most potent form of chaos. The jewels were like a darker version of the elements of harmony except some pony could wield them all at once if they were of alicorn blood. The one Trixie had was the jewel of power, which increased ones power beyond measure which would be enough to cause chaos on its own. The one White Eye found was the jewel of greed; greed will make ponies do unimaginable things for material gain, even killing one another. The one Serpentine possessed was the jewel of wishes; a wish is a powerful thing and can be misused to cause death and tragedy if not phrased correctly, which is pretty chaotic in of itself. The jewel on the Island of the Black Sun is the jewel of decay; it has the power to rot away anything the wielder wishes, even if it is a living being, the perfect tool for chaos. The one here is the jewel of lies; lies have a way of manipulating ponies to turn against one another under false statements, very destructive. The last one is in the jungles ruins in Tuskany, and it is the jewel of corruption; it will increase evil desires and intent of the holder, which when in the hands of a very politically powerful being, can cause wars, genocide, and toppling of a government. When all six of them are brought together, they form the crown of destruction, an extremely powerful artifact that can only be used by me or my sisters. It is the evil version of the elements of harmony to put it simply" he spoke as Toby slithered around him on the sand.

"You seem to know allot about these things" Fluttershy smiled.

"Yeah, how did you learn all of this?" Twilight asked.

"Well I don't like to talk about myself but to answer your question I guess I have to" he sighed as h loosened the black straps that were wrapped around him. "5000 or so years ago when I was a colt, about as old as one of you, my sisters and I living under the rule of Discord, I heard rumors of the jewels and sought out to collect them. I was gone for years, searching all over for them, and I soon managed to collect them all and form the crown, which is similar looking to Tia's crown only with a single red gem in the center in the shape of a sphere, and it had three points on it that were curved like fire. I put it on my head, in hopes I could use its power to help my sisters stop Discord, but Apocalypse sensed the power and took the opportunity to possess my body since I was just a colt then and I was not as strong as I am now, and only a tear of sun and moon could break me free. Right before he took control, I used every last bit of strength I had to seal the crown in a necklace" he said as Twilight said something.

"The fire heart amulet" she said.

"Exactly, the shape of the amulet and the bright red color of the gemstone in it, symbolized the good me trapped inside of my heart. Even with all of the power sealed away, Apocalypse still had my raw power as well as his to fight my two sisters. With their combined power they sealed me away until all of you came and freed me, and the rest you know. But when I sent Apocalypse to hell, he took the real amulet with him and left behind a fake that shattered several weeks after. The pure evil in hell was enough to break apart the crown into the jewels which he used to break through the doors of hell which soon lead to the great hell war" Firestorm said as Toby slithered back into his cowl. "Does that answer your question?" he asked.

Twilight and her friends nodded and were silent as Rainbowdash stood beside Firestorm and began to speak. "What did you see over there?" she asked.

"We aren't the first ones here, be ready for anything" he said to her as they trotted through the barrier as the sun began to set over the desert horizon.


	17. Storm the Castle

As Twilight followed close behind Firestorm who was leading them over a large sand dune, she wondered to herself what would lie on the other side. They reached the top of the sand dune and looked down to see a small, worn castle that was a ruin now. Several large green tents were set up around the castle, and a large group of unicorns were occupying the camp. "Looks like we have company" Rainbowdash said as the moon took to the sky.

"Yeah, we might have to do some sneaking through here" Twilight said as she looked to see Firestorm pull the mask of his cowl over his face to were only his blue eyes were showing.

"That won't work, these guys are a group of desert marauders and will kill us on sight if they catch us, so we have to kill them before they get us" Firestorm said as Toby coiled tightly around his front right hoof. "Blitz, Dashy, and I will go on ahead and try to get rid of some of them so we can get inside, the rest of you stay back and out of sight" he ordered.

"OK" the rest of them said as they sat down to rest why the other three crept down through the sand. Two bronze unicorns were leaning over a rock with a radio beside them playing some weird music.

"Blitz" Firestorm whispered. The Pegasus nodded as Firestorm tossed him one of the swords on his back. The two of them snuck up from behind the unicorns and covered their mouths with their hoofs and slit their throats with the swords, causing a good amount of blood to spill out onto the sand as they buried the bodies in the soft white sand. "Dash" Firestorm mouthed as the rainbow haired pegasus walked over beside them and hid behind the rock with them.

"Split up and take out the ones here in the camp, and whatever you do, don't get caught" he said as Rainbowdash took off her white cloak to make herself less visible. The three split up in different directions, Rainbowdash went straight ahead, while Blitz went left and Firestorm went right.

Blitz crept through the camp and stopped when he heard a unicorn walking closer. Blitz dove behind some crates and waited until he heard the unicorn draw closer. "I don't know why we have to patrol the camp, it's not like any pony is going to sneak in here" he said as he leaned against the crates Blitz was hiding behind. The pegasus held the sword in his mouth as he reached over the crates and grabbed the unicorn and flung him down to the ground and punched his neck hard enough to snap it. He then shoved the body under the sand and covered it up as much as he could. He then proceeded to sneak towards the small castle.

Rainbowdash crawled into one of the tents to find one of the unicorns looking over some maps as well some artifacts taken from the castle. She flicked her hoof and the blade on her wrist shot out and some of the venom I the blade dripped onto the sand. She silently sprinted forward and covered the pony's mouth as she stabbed him in the chest with the blade. The poison quickly took effect and his sin began to dry up and fall off like a snakes skin would when it sheds. She slowly sat the body down on the table to make it look like he was sleeping and she covered him up with a blanket so no one would see that his skin had rotted away. "That shit is strong" she whispered to herself as she flicked her hoof again, making the blood covered blade retract. "What do we have here?" she said as she looked at the maps of the castle that had notes written on them. "This could be useful" she said as she rolled it up and tucked it under her wing as she crept back out of the tent and made her way to the small castle.

Toby removed his fangs from the neck of a tan colored unicorn whose skin soon rotted and fell off as he slithered back to Firestorm, who had 7 dead unicorns in front of him. "Good boy Toby" Firestorm smiled as he looked out at Twilight and the others. "Go and get them boy, bring them over to me" he whispered to the cobra that slithered off towards the mares.

"What is that?" Rarity asked as she saw something small moving towards them.

"I think that its Toby" Fluttershy said softly as the cobra stopped in front of her and began to hiss as if it was talking.

"What's the little critter sayin'?" Applejack asked as Fluttershy listened closely.

"He says that they have cleared out the camp and that we need to meet them at the main gate of the castle" Fluttershy answered.

"Well let's get moving" Twilight said as she and the others ran towards the gates to find Blitz and Rainbowdash standing in front of the large metal gate blocking them from entering. "Where is Firestorm?" she asked.

"Right here" the alicorn said as he walked out of the shadows with one of the swords sheathed on his back. He took the other sword from Blitz and sheathed it as well as he walked up to the rusted metal gate. "The castle was built by the monks who lived here to keep out intruders, the original temple is underground and will play games with your mind" Firestorm said as Toby slithered up on his head and wrapped around his hood. "Stand back" he said as he put a hoof on the gate and sent out a vibration that was so rapid and so strong that it shattered the gate like glass as it fell to pieces on the sand.

"Intruders!" a voice called out from inside the castle.

"I thought you cleared the place out?" Twilight said as they walked inside of the castle.

"So did I, I didn't think that they would be able to get in here" Firestorm answered as unicorns in desert garb came out of the shadows with spells charged and ready to fire from their horns.

"Hold your fire!" the same voice called out. A tall white unicorn with a black goatee and long black mane walked into the moon light to reveal his curved sword shaped cutie mark. "How did you get in here?" he asked as he approached Firestorm and removed the mask from the alicorn's face. "Well I'll be damned, it is Prince Firestorm of Equestria" he chuckled as the other unicorns began to mumble amongst themselves. Toby hissed at the white unicorn causing him to back off as Toby opened his hood to reveal the skull pattern on the back of it.

"Down Toby" Firestorm said sternly to the cobra who just closed his hood and continued to watch the white unicorn.

"Careful every pony, he has a death cobra on his back" the unicorn said as he looked at the others. "My name is Skinner, and you all are in our territory." He said sternly.

"Well what are you going to do about it?" Rainbowdash yelled.

"You are in no position to talk big like that, we have you outnumbered" Skinner smirked.

"But we have you out matched, three of these ponies are military veterans, one is a medic, one was the chief interrogator for the Equestrian Intel Division, one is strong enough to break every bone in a pony's body with a single buck, and the last can hit a fly mid air with a sewing needle. So you still think you can win?" Firestorm smirked as his teeth turned pointed and the whites of his eyes turned black and his irises turned red.

"We will just have to see wont we?" Skinner laughed as he used his magic to shot a stone at Firestorm, breaking it over his head.

"Oh you shouldn't have done that" Twilight said as Firestorm began to laugh like a maniac as his body became encased in bone like armor and a mask covered his face with two eye holes in it with a skull design painted around it.

"MY TURN!" Firestorm laughed as the unicorns opened fire on him.


	18. The Voices

Twilight dug her hooves into the sand and used her magic to fire a large laser at Skinner, sending him into a stone wall. Rainbowdash flew up in the air at extreme speeds followed by Blitz. The two pegasi flew around the castle and knocked out one unicorn after another.

"Kill them!" Skinner coughed. The unicorns began to open fire on all of them, and only managed to land shots on Firestorm who was protecting Fluttershy who was too scared to do anything. Black spots formed over the white armor covering him and he let Applejack take Fluttershy somewhere safe.

"Toby, get em boy" he laughed as the snake shot off of his back and dove into the sand and disappeared from sight. He popped up beneath one unicorn at a time and bit their legs, causing them to fall over in pain as their skin began to bubble and fall off. "Good boy" Firestorm said as he popped his neck and walked over to Skinner and held him up against a wall. "I can't decide whether or not to let Toby eat you, or just break your neck right here" Firestorm smirked as Skinner spat at his face.

"Shouldn't have done that" Twilight said from behind Firestorm as the last of the desert marauders fell. Firestorm quickly jabbed his hoof into the pony's neck, causing it to pop and his eyes to roll back in his head. Firestorm let his body drop as the bone that had formed around his own body shattered and fell off as he returned to normal.

"Let's get moving" Firestorm said as he walked towards the tower to the left of him. The others followed close behind as Toby slithered past them and onto Firestorm's back. He led them into the base of the tower; in the middle of the room was a small metal trap door with no handle on it.

"How are we supposed to get in?" Rarity asked as she looked at the metal hatch.

"Simple, Applejack, if you would be so kind" Firestorm said to the earth pony who slammed her back hooves on the hatch, knocking it from its hinges and sending it down the dark hole that resided under the hatch. Noises that sounded like whispers came from the hole and so did a gust of wind.

"Did any pony else hear that?" Twilight asked.

"Hear what?" Fluttershy answered as she hid under Rainbow's tail.

"Come on every pony, down the hole we go!" Pinkie said as she hopped down the dark pit.

"Pinkiepie!" Rarity called out as she jumped in after her. Blitz just stood there looking through his saddle bag for something as every other pony went down the hole except Firestorm.

"Come on Blitz, down you go!" Firestorm said as he picked up Blitz by the tail with his magic and dropped him down the hole, causing him to yell something at Firestorm who jumped in after him. Blitz landed on his feet at the bottom of the hole in a room lit by Rarity and Twilight's magic.

"Where is Firestorm?" Rainbowdash asked as she heard a voice echoing through the hole they came through. Firestorm came down and landed on Blitz, causing him to collapse to the floor as dust flew up around them.

"Nice and soft landing, what did I land on?" Firestorm said as he looked to see he had landed on Blitz who was twitching as he sat on top of him. "Thanks for breaking my fall dude" Firestorm laughed as he got up and looked around the room as Rainbowdash helped her brother to his hoofs.

"What the fuck dude!" he yelled as that whisper Twilight had heard earlier was heard again, but this time Rainbowdash.

"Is something else down here with us?" Rainbow asked.

"No, I don't sense any other life forms down here" Twilight said as her eyes glowed white.

"Well we better get moving this place creeps me out" Firestorm shivered as he burnt a thick cob web that blocked the doorway. "Try not to get separated" he said as he pushed open the rusted iron door and walked into a dark passage with the others close behind him.

"Rainbowdash" a voice whispered in Rainbow's ear. The cyan pegasus turned around to see that no pony was behind her. "He is lying to you" the voice said again as her friends walked further down the passage but she stayed back to look for where the voice was coming from.

"Is someone there?" she said as she looked around to see she was in total darkness now. "Show yourself!" she ordered.

"He has been lying to you" the voice said again in its whispered tone.

"Who is lying to me?" she said.

"Firestorm, he is the one who has been lying to you. He spends so much time with Twilight Sparkle, supposedly teaching her magic" the voice said again.

"Of course he does, he is one of her teachers" Rainbowdash laughed.

"That may be so, but some teachers and students end up having special relationships. Maybe it's because he has grown tired of you, and has decided to try a unicorn instead" the voice snickered.

"What are you saying?" Rainbow said afraid to know the answer.

"I think it would be better if you saw for yourself" the voice said as it manifested images in front of the pegasus. It played out before her like a movie, Firestorm kissing Twilight on the neck as she lie on her back over his bed.

"Rainbowdash won't be back for some time, which gives us more time to ourselves" Firestorm smirked as Twilight spread her back legs. Firestorm pressed his erected member against her tight pink entrance and forced his way in, causing her to gasp and blush as he thrusted in and out while still kissing her neck. Rainbowdash stood in shock at the horror being displayed before her as tears crept into her eyes.

"See, he never loved you" the voice snickered as the images it produced faded away. Rainbowdash just sat down and started laughing as the tears left her eyes. "What is so funny?" the voice asked confused.

"You almost had me for a moment" she laughed some more. "There are three things wrong with all of this; the first is that Firestorm told us before we came in here that this place played tricks with your mind. The other is that he never calls me Rainbowdash, its either Dash or Dashy, and finally" she said looking up from the ground "he would never even consider doing such a thing" she laughed as she stood up and walked after her friends.

"Well, that didn't go as well as planned" the voice said as some of the shadows materialized into a unicorn with bandages wrapped around its eyes and several gold earrings. His coat and mane were black as coal and he had no cutie mark. "Oh well, there are still more of them to try to drive to insanity by toying with their minds" he chuckled as he faded away.

Rainbowdash ran up to Firestorm who was lighting the way and walked beside him. "Say Firestorm, I was wondering something" she spoke to the alicorn who turned his head towards her. "Could the monks that lived here have left behind some sort of security system?" she asked to the alicorn who face hoofed.

"That completely slipped my mind" he laughed. "Yeah, I think I read something about them leaving behind a spell that will play with intruders minds and drive them to kill each other, it makes you see what never happened or never will happen just to confuse you and drive you mad. That is how this place they got the name, the Temple of False Whispers" he said as they walked further. "Why do you ask?" he said curiously.

"No reason, just hoping for some action" she smiled.


	19. Mind Games part 1

As the group walked further down the corridor, they came to what looked like a dead end. "What the hay? This can't be a dead end" Twilight said.

"It isn't, it's just a trick to confuse intruders" Firestorm said as he walked closer to the end of the hall and went further down then they thought he could. "They changed the size of the bricks to give off the appearance of a dead end" he said looking to his left and then his right at the two passageways.

"Which way do we go?" Applejack asked.

"Maybe this will help" Rainbowdash said as she pulled out the map she had taken from the enemy camp earlier. "I picked this up on our way here, it looks like a map of the place" she said as she spread the tan paper with rough sketching of the temple on it.

"Alright, let's see here" Twilight said as she looked at the map and pondered. "It looks like both of these passages lead to the big room at the end of the map she said tapping the drawing with her hoof.

"So which do we take?" Blitz asked.

"Well it looks like at the end of each path is a lever that opens the door to the main room, and from these notes on the side, it says they both need to be pulled at the same time to open the doors" she said.

"So I guess we will be splitting up into two groups" Rarity said.

"Correct, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Blitz will go down the left path. While Firestorm, Twilight, and Pinkie and myself will go down the right one" Rainbow said rolling up the map and then putting it Blitz's saddle bag.

"Do I have to go down the dark and scary hallway?" Fluttershy asked shaking as she hid behind Rainbowdash.

"You'll be fine Fluttershy; you have three other ponies with you" Rainbowdash smiled as she comforted her scared friend. "Alright every pony, split up and light one of these when you get to the lever" Rainbowdash said as she pulled a firecracker out of Blitz's saddle bag and tucked it in her wing. "It should be loud enough to echo through here and signal the other group that you have reached the switch" she said as she began to walk down the right passage with the rest of her group close behind her.

"That sister of yours can be a bit bossy every now and then" Applejack said to Blitz who just chuckled.

"You get used to it" he said as rarity led the way with her horn glowing to light up the hallway. Blitz's group continued to walk for awhile until they came to a room filled with mirrors of different shapes and sizes covering both the ceiling and the walls.

"Oh how delightful, I was hoping I could check on my hair" Rarity said as she walked over to a small round mirror and began to check herself over.

"Damn it Rarity, we got more important things to do than to wait on you to fix your mane" Applejack growled.

"Even if we are in a shabby old temple that is no reason for me not to look my best" Rarity scoffed as she continued to look over her mane.

"Forget this, we are going ahead, catch up to us when you're done bein' all prissy" Applejack said as she walked forward into the darkness. Rarity continued to look her mane over until the mirror she was looking in began to shift and images began to play before her.

"What in Equestria is this?" she said as she saw Sweetiebell walking through town. "What is Sweetiebell up to?" she asked herself as a little earth pony colt came out the shadows and approached Sweetiebell. His body was thin and lacked any muscle tone and was covered with a pale white coat. His mane was like a bowl cut and his tail was short and cut extremely short, both tail and mane were solid black. His face had several patches of freckles on it, and his smile showed that he wore braces that were hideous to look at because of their enormous size. He wore thick glasses with tape in the middle that made his eyes look big and creepy, and on his flank was the symbol for pi as his cutie mark. Over all, the pony was just unappealing to look at and at a school would be classified as an outcast. "What the hell is she doing?" Rarity said getting upset that her little sister would be hanging around some pony like that.

"You ready to go Poindexter?" Sweetiebell asked smiling.

"Sure am!" he said in a voice that was obviously impaired by his braces, and that sounded similar to Twist's voice. "I am so excited for out date at Sugarcube Corner" he said again sending some spit into the air.

"Me to sweetie" Sweetiebell said as the images in the mirror began to fade and a reflection of the shocked and terrified look on Rarity's face replaced them.

"This is just awful, this can't be true, it just can't be! Sweetiebell would never date someone as unattractive as that, and a filthy earth pony at that!" Rarity said holding her head between her hoofs as she rocked back and forth on in the fetal position. The shadows in the room above Rarity's head and the pony from earlier with the bandages over his eyes.

'This one reacts horribly to even the littlest things, how delightful' he thought to himself as he melded back into the wall. Applejack and the others walked back in the room to find Rarity curled up in a ball shaking with parts of her mane sticking up.

"What happened to you Rarity? You look awful" Applejack said as she knelt down beside the shaking unicorn.

"Sweetiebell would never do that, it can't be true!" she kept saying to herself.

"Calm down Sugarcube, I think this place is getting to yah" Applejack said helping Rarity up and walking beside the still shaking unicorn. "Just follow us, we will get you out of here as fast as we can after we get that jewel" Applejack said as she led Rarity further down the hall which she lit up with her horn.

"Applejack" a voice said from the shadows.

"Did some pony call me?" Applejack asked. Both Blitz and Fluttershy shook their heads no. "I think I must be hearin' things" she chuckled as they came to a break in the path they were walking on.

"Applejack" the voice called again. Applejack looked to the left passage to see something red sitting in the middle of the hall.

"Ya'll wait right here, I gotta check on something" she said as she walked towards the red object that started to roll away as she got closer to it. Her walk turned into a gallop as she ran after the red object that began to glow. It stopped ten feet away from Applejack and it lit up the area around it and behind it lit up a tree in a clay pot. Applejack got closer to see that the object was an apple, and a fairly big one to. She looked up at the tree and her mouth went agape. "Bloomberg?" she said.

"Why did you leave me Applejack?" a voice said from the tree.

"What do yah mean Bloomberg?" she said confused.

"You left me at Appleloosa, don't you love me Applejack?" the voice said again as a frowning face formed on the tree.

"Of course I do Bloomberg" she said.

"THEN WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME!" the voice said now in a screaming tone as the apple at the base of the tree began to hover and a mouth lined with razor sharp teeth formed on it.

"Bloomberg, take it easy, you were a present to mah cousins" she said backing away from the tree slowly but was blocked by the apple floating behind her.

"So I was just a gift, I wasn't anything more to you" the voice said again as the apple behind Applejack opened its mouth and let its pointed tongue hang out. Applejack turned and looked at it and bucked it so hard it splattered all over the wall behind her, covering the wall in blood and apple paste. "You will pay for leaving me behind Applejack" the tree said as it shot apples at her as she ran out of the room and back to her friends. The tree morphed into the solid black pony with the bandages over his eyes who now had a smirk on her face. "That ought to keep her paranoid for a good while, blocking out her ability to think" he laughed as he faded back into darkness.

"Applejack are you alright?" Fluttershy asked.

"Just f-fine" she stuttered as she looked around her for any signs of something apple related. "We better keep moving" she said as she continued to help the shaking Rarity walk.

"Something is not right" Blitz said to Fluttershy, who just nodded and walked beside him down the passageway.


	20. Mind Games part 2

Twilight used her magic to illuminate the stone hallway as she and the others walked further down. Rainbowdash walked close beside Firestorm who was humming a tune to himself. "Twilight" the voice whispered to the purple unicorn who stopped and looked around for where the voice could have came from.

"Is something wrong?" Firestorm asked as Toby stuck his head out of Firestorm's mane and looked at her.

"Nothing, I just thought I heard something" she chuckled as she continued to walk forward.

"Twilight" the voice called again as they reached a break in the path. "This way" the voice called again from the passage to the left.

"You all wait here, I will check the left path to see if that is the way we should go" she said as she continued alone down the dark left passage. 'I wonder who could be calling me back here' she thought to herself as she entered a large square room. The walls around her began to change from stone, into a mellow green wall paper. On the wall in front of her was a large black board with nothing written on it. She looked around her to see several small desks with fillies and colts sitting in them. "Oh sweet Celestia no" she said to herself as a purple unicorn with a light blue mane, and a ruler shaped cutie mark walked into the room and used her magic to write on the chalk board.

"Good morning class, we have a new student today, she was the prize pupil of Firestorm and Celestia but neglected her studies. So as punishment, Celestia sent her back here to magic kindergarten, please give a warm welcome to Twilight Sparkle" she said pointing her hoof at Twilight who looked down to see she was sitting in a desk that was way too small for her.

"Loser" one of the colts coughed as they all began to laugh at her and point.

"That is enough class, you can ridicule her later during recess" the teacher said as she drew a ritual circle on the black board.

"Um, I think there is some sort of mistake, I shouldn't be here" Twilight said confused at everything that was happening.

"Oh so now you are questioning the decision of our princess?" the teacher said leaning against her desk while making a ruler hover in front of her face with her magic.

"No, it's just I have been a good student and I shouldn't be here" Twilight said nervously as she stood up from her desk and proceeded to walk towards the door but was stopped by the teacher who held the ruler in front of the door with her magic and hit Twilight with it across her face, leaving a red mark on her cheek.

"You are right, you don't belong here" the teacher began "awful students like you don't deserve to learn the ways of magic, you are expelled from any learning system in Equestria" she said as the students began to laugh at Twilight who was starting to cry.

"This can't be happening" Twilight sobbed to herself as the laughing grew louder as her tears hit the floor. "This just can't be happening" Twilight said as she curled up in a ball in the corner of the room as the green on the walls began to peel away and the room returned to its normal stone walled form. Twilight still sat in the corner of the room crying as the black pony with the bandages over his eyes stood on the ceiling snickering.

'Oh this is just too easy' he thought to himself as he melded back into the ceiling when he heard hoof steps coming closer. Rainbowdash and Pinkiepie walked into the room to find Twilight curled up in the corner crying.

"Twilight!" the two of them said as they ran over to their friend to see if she was alright.

"Are you ok? Did you get hurt?" Rainbowdash asked looking over the sobbing unicorn.

"I'm a good student, I don't wanna go back to magic kindergarten" she kept saying to herself as Rainbow helped her up.

"You're ok Twilight, come on, let's get you out of here" Pinkie said helping her friend walk back to Firestorm who was sitting down in the middle of the hall. The alicorn looked up at the three mares and noticed Twilight was shaken up pretty bad.

'What happened to her?" he asked them.

"Don't know, we found her like this" Rainbowdash said.

"Well let's just get the jewel and get out of here, I think this place is messing with every pony's mind" Firestorm said as he led the way down the dark right passage. The black unicorn stuck his head out from the wall and just sighed.

"Well the pink on is already sort of insane so I can't do anything to her" he said to himself. "The large one seems to be protecting himself somehow so my tricks won't work on him either. Might as well go back to the other group and mess with the yellow one who will be easy to scare and the blind one" he said as he melded back into the wall.

Meanwhile on the other side of the temple, Fluttershy and Blitz were helping Applejack and Rarity move forward since they were also shaken up. "How much longer do we have to walk, this is getting boring" Blitz groaned.

"I hope we get out of here soon, this place is creepy" Fluttershy said as she held up Rarity with her wing.

"Fluttershy" the voice said in the yellow pony's ear. She froze up at hearing this and turned around to see a little bunny sitting in the middle of the hall.

"Aww" she said at the sight of the bunny. She was about to walk closer to it when its fur fell off, leaving it bald. Next its skin began to peel off showing all of its muscles and tendons. Then those fell off onto the floor and burst into flames, leaving nothing but a skeleton that screeched at her, causing to her to fall over frozen in fear.

"Fluttershy?" Blitz said walking over to the pony who was lying on her back with all four of her legs sticking up in the air like one of those fainting goats. "For the love of Celestia" Blitz groaned as he grabbed her tail with his teeth and began to drag her down the hell while holding up Applejack and Rarity with his wings. He continued to walk until he came to a wall with a lever on it. He felt the wall until he hit the lever and he then smiled. "Bingo" he said as he pulled out the cylindrical firecracker and lit it with Rarity's horn. He tossed it and covered his ears as it exploded with a loud bang that made his ears ring.

On the other side of the temple, Rainbowdash and Firestorm raised their ears when they heard the bang. "Looks like they made it as well" Firestorm said as he lit his firecracker and tossed it, letting it explode and the sound echo through the passageways.

Blitz heard this and put his hoof on the lever and pulled it while at the same time, Firestorm pulled the lever on his side, causing a series of loud thuds and grinding noises. The stone walls where the levers were fell down into the floor and opened the way into a large room that looked like the inside of a church. It had multiple stone pews with a podium up front with a statue of the sun behind it. Blitz dragged all three of the frozen mares into the room and sat them down beside some pews.

"Why Blitz" a mares voice said in his ear. He tapped the pew to send out a sound wave to see what was around him, but he found nothing.

"Who is there?" he said sternly as he walked away from the three still scared mares.

"You don't remember me after all these years?" the voice said again as a mare walked out of the shadows, she was a snow white pegasus with a snow flake cutie mark, ice blue mane and tail, and light blue eyes. She stood only an inch shorter then Blitz. "Hello Blitz" she said in a soft voice.

"Ice Storm" he said as Firestorm and the others walked into the room from the other door and looked over at the white pegasus.

"This is not good" Firestorm said knowing exactly who that pony was.


	21. The Truth Comes Forth

"Shit, this must be the security spell that the monks left behind" Firestorm said as he began to walk closer to Blitz who was frozen where he was standing.

"I thought you were dead" Blitz said as a tear filled the bottom part of his left goggle lens.

"I am, but there is a way you can bring me back" Ice Storm said as she saw Firestorm walking closer to her. "My soul is trapped here in this realm, but in order for you to bring me back to life to where I am flesh and blood, you need to do something" she smiled evilly knowing Blitz wouldn't see it.

"Anything" he sniffled.

"Kill Firestorm, and sacrifice his body to bring me back" she whispered in his ear as she rubbed her tail under his chin. Blitz stood there with a look of confusion on his face.

"Blitz, don't listen to her!" Rainbowdash called out to her older brother. Blitz's ear twitched when he heard this as Firestorm braced himself to be attacked.

"You have a choice to make, kill him to bring me back, or lose me forever" she said softly in his ear. He sighed and turned his head towards Firestorm.

"This is not going to end well" Pinkie said as she looked at the smiling Ice Storm. "We have to help him" Pinkie said as Rainbow held her back by her tail.

"Let's just see what happens before we jump in" Rainbowdash said as Blitz stood 3 feet away from Firestorm.

"I'm sorry" the dark blue pegasus said as he tackled the alicorn to the ground and took one of the swords from his back and held it to Firestorm's throat. "Forgive me" he said as he hurled the sword at Ice Storm, landing it right between her eyes. The white pegasus staggered and pulled the blade from between her eyes, causing blood to squirt out and drip down her face. Her white coat peeled away and was replaced with a solid black one. Her light blue mane and tail grew longer and turned a dark black as her wings retracted into her body and a horn grew from her forehead.

"What in Equestria?" Firestorm said as Blitz got off of him and stood beside him, facing the black unicorn before them. Bandages wrapped around its eyes and the shape of its head changed to the shape of a stallion's head.

"You bastard!" the black unicorn screamed in a male voice as he threw the sword back at Blitz only to have it caught by Firestorm's magic. "I was able to drive the others insane by showing them lies that would hurt them terribly, but you four were able to resist my magic. The pink one is already crazy so nothing worked on her, and the two pegasi are too headstrong to believe any of this stuff, and also too loyal to betray the rest of you. Firestorm is also insane so nothing would work on him either" the unicorn growled.

"Just who are you?" Rainbowdash asked.

"I don't have a name, but the monks that lived here created me to protect the temple after they passed on. I use illusions and lies to mess with ponies' minds, just like I did with four of your friends. But even though now that you know the truth, I will still complete my role and stop you from destroying this temple" he growled again as the other four began to calm down.

"So none of that was real? Or a vision of the future?" Twilight asked with a relieved tone in her voice.

"Of course not you idiot! Why do you think this place is called the temple of FALSE whispers?" the unicorn said in an irritated tone.

"Well that is a relief, I was so worried that Sweetiebell had actually fallen for a…nerd" rarity shivered as she stood up.

"And I am glad that Bloomberg isn't trying to kill me" Applejack sighed as she dusted off her hat. Fluttershy stood up and hid behind Applejack.

"Enough talk!" the unicorn said as it melded into the floor and reappeared at a wooden door at the head of the room. "I won't let you destroy the monk's graves!" he yelled.

"What are you talking about?" Firestorm said with sort of a chuckle.

"That is why you came here right? The ponies in the past came here and sought to destroy the remains of the monks" the unicorn said more relaxed.

"Um, no actually we came here to get the jewel of lies" Rainbow said.

"You mean that purple thing in the burial chamber that won't stop making that annoying buzzing noise?" the unicorn asked. "If that is what you came for, be my guest and take it, it won't shut up! And it annoys the piss out of me" the unicorn said as he walked through the door and came back with the jewel in his mouth. His used his magic to toss it to Firestorm who caught it and pulled a metal lock box out of Blitz's saddle bag. He opened it and put the jewel inside of the velvet lined box that held the other 4 jewels. Each one sat in a hole cut out for them, and the holes were arranged in a hexagonal pattern. He sat it in an empty hole and locked the box back and then sat it back in the saddle bag.

"So you are giving it to us, just like that?" Twilight asked a bit confused.

"Of course, my sole purpose is to protect the remains of my masters from any and all dangers, living and non living. That jewel there was disturbing the sanctity of the temple, and I couldn't exactly leave to get rid of it" the unicorn said as the wound on his head began to close.

"You are the first to ever willingly give us one of the jewels" Firestorm laughed.

"Well I better get back to my post, if you ponies want a quick way out of here, just take the side passage here" he said as he punched the wall, causing a square opening in the wall to appear. Through the door was a large circular pool filled with water that gave off a salty smell. "Just swim through here and you will be back out to the sea port you came from" the unicorn said as he began to fade.

"Before you go, I need to ask you a question" Twilight said as the unicorn stopped fading. 'How did you know all this stuff about us? Like what our fears were, what lies to tell to mess with our heads, and how did you know we came from a sea port?" she said curiously.

"When you entered here, you entered the area of a spell that allows me to go through your memories and your mind all together" the unicorn answered as he looked at Rainbowdash and Firestorm. "You two had some particularly interesting memories of the time you two spend together" he laughed as he faded completely and Rainbowdash and Firestorm blushed.

"That is just plain wrong" Applejack said as she and the others walked into the room with the pool. "Well, we better get moving" she said as she dove into the pool and splashed water on every pony in the room.

"My hair!" Rarity wined as she was tossed into the pool by Twilight's magic.

"You can fix it later Rarity" the purple unicorn said as she and the others dove into the water. After about a minute of swimming, they swam to the surface and looked around to find themselves beside their ship.

"Well that was fast" Pinkie said as her mane covered her eyes as water dripped from it.

"What in bloody hell are you 8 doin' in the water?" a voice said from above them on the ship. They looked up to see Pathfinder toss a rope ladder down to them, which they quickly climbed up. "I'm not even going to ask how you guys got down there, I just want to get the bloody hell out of this country!" he said as he held a cigarette up to Firestorms mane, lighting it as Toby stuck his head out and looked around.

"Why? Did something happen?" Fluttershy asked as each one of them was given a large towel to dry off with.

"They don't have any freakin' booze here!" Pathfinder said with an eye twitching. "I haven't had a drink in 2 days!" he wined as the ship was pulled out into deeper water where the sails were dropped.

"Well let's just get out of here, all this dry air is making my hair all frizzy" rarity said as her mane poofed up into a big purple afro.

"Set sail for Tuskany!" Firestorm ordered his crew as he took Blitz's saddle bag. "Meet me in my quarters in a half hour, we need to have a talk" Firestorm said with the bag in his mouth. Rarity walked over to her little sister who was sitting down with her friends talking.

"Sweetiebell, can I talk to you for a moment?" she said to her little sister. The little unicorn smiled and walked over to her sister after laughing at her hair for a moment. "Sweetiebell, you would tell me if there was a stallion you were interested in wouldn't you?" Rarity asked. Sweetiebell blushed and her friends began to giggle behind her.

"Why do you ask?" she said nervously.

"I just had a little scare is all" she said seeing her sister sweating nervously "Is there a colt you like?" she asked in a whispered tone. Sweetiebell blushed and looked at Firestorm who was shaking the water off of himself. Rarity looked to see what Sweetiebell was starring at. "Sweetiebell" Rarity smiled nudging her sister her turned a bright red and ran bellow deck.

"Smooth move Rarity" Scootaloo said rolling her eyes as she and Applebloom ran after Sweetiebell.

"Was it something I said?" she asked herself as Twilight just stood by the mast and shook her head, having heard the whole thing.


	22. Into the Grey

The large wooden ship creaked as waves crashed against it, causing it to sway back and forth. Sweetiebell sat at the bow of the ship, looking down at the sea foam with her friend's right beside her. "It's ok Sweetiebell, Rarity is just really nosey" Scootaloo said with a comforting grin on her face.

"That's not what I am upset about" the filly sighed as some water splashed up in her face that had an expression of depression written on it.

"Well what are you upset about then?" Applebloom asked. Sweetiebell just remained silent and turned her head to see Firestorm talking to Rainbowdash. The alicorn turned his head and looked at the little filly and smiled at her. Sweetiebell blushed and turned away as Scootaloo and Applebloom just looked at each other and sighed.

"Sweetiebell, you need to let this go, he is too old for you" Scootaloo said as she leaned over the railing on the ship with her friend. Applebloom and Scootaloo continued to talk to Sweetiebell while Firestorm looked up at Pathfinder who had an uneasy look on his face.

"Everything alright?" he asked the white pegasus.

"So far anyway, but I don't like the route you picked to get to Tuskany lad" Pathfinder said.

"You know that those stories are just old rumors Pathfinder, just keep her steady and on the path we have set out" Firestorm said to the white pegasus.

"Aye" Pathfinder sighed as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Firestorm just chuckled and shook his head at the way his friend was acting.

"What is he so worried about?" Rainbowdash asked as Twilight approached them.

"There is a legend that the kraken lurks in these waters just outside of Tuskany, and the reason they thing that is because almost every ship that has gone into this section of water, has never come back out" Firestorm chuckled.

"By kraken, you mean the immortal sea monster that drags sailors down to their deaths?" Twilight asked as a bead of sweat rolled down his face.

"Don't get so worried, it's just a rumor, the ships probably hit on some rocks and sunk or something" Firestorm smirked.

"I don't know about this, something just doesn't feel right" Rainbow said with uneasiness in her voice.

"Relax Dashy, if there is a sea monster, we can make quick work of it" Firestorm laughed as Toby slithered off of his back and onto Rainbow's back. "And if it makes you feel safer, you can carry Toby with you" Firestorm said as the cobra rubbed the top of his head against her cheek. Minutes had passed and they entered and area of the sea that was much different from the rest, the water was a dark grey instead of a deep blue, and dark storm clouds hung overhead, blotting out allot of the suns rays.

'I don't like the looks of this place' Twilight thought to herself as she looked to see Applebloom and her friends at the bow of the ship talking about something. "Girls, come here for a moment" she said to the three fillies who quickly walked over to her.

"Whatcha need Twi?" Applebloom asked.

"You girls go into Firestorms room and stay there until we get through this area ok?" she asked quietly. The three of them looked at each other quickly made their way into Firestorm's room and closed the door behind them.

"Wonder why she wants us to stay in here?" Scootaloo said as she began to rummage through Firestorm's desk.

"What the hay are you doin' Scoot?" Applebloom said to her orange friend.

"I'm bored, I am looking for something to do" Scootaloo said as a leather bound book fell from the desk and onto the floor.

"What is that?" Sweetiebell asked.

"It looks like a journal" Applebloom said as she picked it up and looked at the front cover. "It's Firestorm's journal!" Applebloom said tempted to open it and read it.

"M-maybe we should put it back" Sweetiebell suggested.

"But aren't you curious to read it?" Applebloom said as Scootaloo walked over to the two of them to look at the journal. Applebloom slowly moved her hoof to open the first page but was stopped by Sweetiebell.

"We can't do this; it just isn't right going through others private things. You remember what happened when we were Gabby Gums don't you" Sweetiebell said as she turned her eyes to the book to see Applebloom opened it when she wasn't looking. "Well….maybe just one look won't hurt" she said as she began to scan the first page.

_So it seems like we had three stowaways on board the ship. Well I can't really blame them for wanting to come along. Those three fillies are an interesting group; Applebloom seems to be the ring leader of the cutie mark crusaders. Scootaloo reminds me so much of Dashy, only smaller and orange, I think she might be the tomboy of the group. Out of all of them, Sweetiebell interests me the most. Like for instance I was walking past my quarters one night and I heard a melodious voice coming from inside. I peeked through to find Sweetiebell sitting at my desk singing a sweet tune. Her voice reminds me so much of the way mother would sing me to sleep when I was a foal. Although for some reason, every time I talk to her, she gets at a loss of words, I can't figure out why though, I can never fully understand mares, even with over 5000 years of dealing with them. Oh well, I have great faith that those three will find their special talents soon enough, once they start doing what they love and mastering it._

"This was written 3 days after snuck on board the ship" Sweetiebell said as she began to flip through the pages for more entries.

"Firestorm has been observing us? Why?" Scootaloo asked as Sweetiebell continued to read the journal.

"Ah don't know" Applebloom said as the ship was suddenly rocked to the right, causing them to fall over. "What was that?" she said as Sweetiebell closed the journal and put it in one of the drawers. The three of them opened the door and looked outside to find large slimy green tentacles gripping the side of the ship, and the crew trying to hack them off with axes and swords.

"Firestorm you bloody idiot! I warned you didn't i!" Pathfinder yelled at the alicorn who was slicing the tentacles with the large broadsword made of bone that had used against White Eye.

"Well I thought it was just a rumor!" Firestorm yelled as a tentacle shot over and grabbed the three fillies who were standing on the deck of the ship. "Shit!" he said as he saw the slimy green appendage gripping tightly around the cutie mark crusaders while waving them around in the air. "Don't worry girls, I will get you out of there!" he called out as a large tentacle slammed him down into the water.

"We are so fucked" Pathfinder said as blood trickled down his face as he slashed one of the tentacles off and watched it flop on the deck like a fish out of water.


	23. Embodiment of Hell

"Turn that thing into chum!" Applejack said as she picked up a nearby sword with her mouth and began to hack at one of the tentacles, causing purple blood mixed with a clear green ooze to splatter on the deck. The beast still held the cutie mark crusaders in one of its tentacles, swinging them around in the air. Firestorm flew out of the raging waters of the sea with his broad sword in his hoofs.

"Help us!" Scootaloo screamed as she and the others opened their eyes to see they were falling, with the tentacle still around them. As they fell down to the water, they began to scream but stopped when they felt themselves being lifted up instead of going under water.

"Firestorm!" Sweetiebell smiled as the golden blonde alicorn sat them down on the main deck and got the tentacle off of them.

"You three alright?" he asked the shaken up fillies.

"We're fine, thanks for saving us" Scootaloo thanked as the kraken raised its body above water. It body was large and muscular, while having a humanoid shape to it. It arms looked like they could crush cities, and its fingers were large tentacles, with bots of them cut off. Its head was shaped like a hermit crab shell, with its face sticking out the front of the shell, along with some more tentacles and a mouth lined with razor sharp teeth. It stood over 100 stories in height, and the lower half of its body appeared to be made up of even more tentacles, eight of them to be exact.

"Sweet mother of mercy" Pathfinder said as his mouth went agape and he dropped his cigarette overboard. "I told you we shouldn't have come this way you fucking idiot!" the pegasus yelled at Firestorm who was standing on the side of the ship with the kraken looking down at him with slime coming from its mouth.

"Relax Pathfinder, I got this" Firestorm smirked as Rainbowdash hit him on the back of the head with a plank of wood, breaking it over his hard skull. "What the hell!" he yelled as a knot formed on the back of his head.

"Are you insane? That thing is way too big for any of your spells to work on it, not even your sentinel form will work!" she yelled.

"None of the spells you have seen will work, but I have a trick or two left" the alicorn laughed as his eyes turned completely black. "Keep every pony back, get to close and you will burn up and die' he said as he jumped down and hovered above the water and pushed the sip away from him with his back hoof. It floated 150 yards away from him as a bright orange aura formed around him. The aura began to expand and mold into a human shaped skeleton. It had blood stained chains around its forearms, and two large horns sticking out of the sides of its skull, which was covered in black flame. It stood the same height as the kraken even though the ocean water was up to its waist, but its legs were visible through the grey water due to the fire like glow they were giving off, as well as the rest of its body. Two large bat wings stuck out from its shoulder blades, each one the length of its upper body. From his side hung a mace, which only the handle showed since the rest of it was below water, but the handle grip was made up of smaller chains to form a nice silver grip. "What in the name of all that is holy is that thing!" Rainbowdash said as the large skeleton let out a shriek that made the kraken stagger in the water.

"I can't believe he is using that" Twilight said as her legs gave out and she collapsed. "The Embodiment of Hell spell" she said in a shaky voice.

"What does it do exactly?" Blitz asked with purple blood on his goggles.

"He takes on the form of a beast that is made up of all of hells evil, it is a combination spell of fire and death magic, and mortal ponies that try it, die in the process of trying to unleash it. It is impossible to kill, and it carries a mace that will burn up anything it strikes until it is dead." Twilight answered as Fluttershy helped her back up. As they were all looking at the large squid monster and the skeleton, they failed to notice a tentacle crawling across the deck of the ship over towards Applebloom and her friends.

"That is so awesome" Scootaloo said as Firestorm raised the skeletons right and used it to punch the kraken in the stomach, causing it to fall over in the water. The tentacle wrapped around Sweetiebell when no pony was looking, and the little white unicorn let out a squeal of fear. Blitz turned his head and stabbed a shard of wood through the tentacle, pinning it to the deck. It had a large spasm and then just let go of Sweetiebell as it fell over limp.

"Thanks" the Sweetiebell smiled as she kicked the dead tentacle. She turned her gaze to Firestorm, who was fighting with only the skeletons hands, not even bothering to reach for the mace. "Please don't get hurt" she said as a tear crept into her eye but she wiped it away with her hoof.

Meanwhile, Firestorm was floating inside of the skeletons skull with different nerve like things wrapped around his body, allowing him to control everything. "I better kill this thing quickly, or else the side effects of the spell will be more costly" he said as he punched the monster in the face, cracking the bones in several of its tentacles. The kraken swung its right arms and grabbed around the skeletons head with its tentacle like finders, letting the little teeth inside each suction cup dig into the skull. Its hand began to smoke and it held onto the skeletons head. It let go and began to wail in pain as it put its hand in the water, letting it sooth the burns. "This thing is really starting to annoy me" Firestorm said as the side of his head bled a little bit.

"What is he doing?" Twilight said as Firestorm made the skeleton clasp both hands together for a moment. The skeleton reached down for the mace and gripped the handle tightly as the chains on its right arm began to wrap around the skeletons hand and then attach to the mace. It raised the weapon from the water and held it above its head. The mace itself was as long as his forearm and the head of the weapon had four blades on it, each one a piercing white. On the very top was a red jewel that had an evil aura coming from it.

"It's over" Firestorm said as he lowered his hoof, causing the skeleton to slam the weapon on the crown of the krakens head, shattering his shell like skull into pieces as his body burst into fire and sunk below the surface of the water with the flames still burning even under all that water. The glow of the skeleton began to fade and its fire-like orange bones turned grey like ash and fell apart like such. Firestorm began to fall to the water below but was saved by Rainbowdash; who found he was wrapped in some sort of dark blue cloth, and that he was much smaller then he normally was. His entire body was covered and she couldn't see any of his features as she sat him back down on the deck of the ship which was littered with parts of tentacles.

"What happened to him? Is he ok?" Rainbow said too afraid to uncover him. Twilight and the rest of the ponies that had survived crowded around him and watched as the cloth began to stir and something inside of it sat up, causing the dark blue fabric to fall off and reveal Firestorm, who was now much, much smaller.

"Holy shit" Twilight said as Rainbowdash began to burst out laughing. The reason for this was that Firestorm had been turned into a colt that looked only a year or two older then Applebloom and her friends. His mane was much shorter so it would be proportional to his body as well as his tail, which was now half its length. He stood only an inch or two taller than Scootaloo and looked up angrily at the mares around him laughing.

"It's not funny!" he said in a higher pitched voice then normal which made them laugh even harder.

"Aww, he is just so adorable!" Rarity said as she picked him up by his face with her hooves and meshed his cheeks together.

"Go ahead, laugh it up" he said crossing his front legs waiting for every pony to stop laughing. "This is only temporary; it should only last about a week. And even though I am just a colt, I am still in charge around here" he said as he flew free from Rarity's grip.

"Sorry lad, but I can't take orders from a child" Pathfinder chuckled as Firestorm flew right in front of his face.

"I may be a child, but I am still as powerful as I was before" he growled as Sweetiebell looked at the now child version of Firestorm and blushed.

"Prove it then" Pathfinder smirked as he looked above him to see a barrel floating above his head. Firestorm smashed it over his skull, shattering the barrel into pieces and knocking the white pegasus unconscious. Firestorm sat down on Pathfinder's back and looked sternly at the rest of his crew and the mares in front of him.

"Any pony else want to test their luck?" he said with an eye twitching and a sinister smile on his face. They all ran back to their posts as he got off of Pathfinder and Toby slithered around his body since he was too small to fit in his mane. "This is going to be a long week" he said as he flew into his quarters with Rainbowdash behind him.


	24. Land of the Elephants

Twilight stood at the back of the ship, looking as the area where the kraken was began to change as the mixture of black ink and purple blood in the water mixed. The clouds began to break, finally letting sunlight through. The rays of light hit the water and began to change it from grey to a deep blue. "Amazing" she said as Sweetiebell walked over to the now smaller Firestorm who was lying sideways in his chair at the back of the ship asleep with a book over his face.

"Um, Firestorm" Sweetiebell said nudging the sleeping alicorn with her hoof. He stirred a bit and lifted the blue book off of his face with his magic and turned his head and smiled at Sweetiebell.

"Yeah Sweetiebell, is something wrong" he yawned as he stood up and jumped down from the chair and looked at the blushing unicorn. "You alright?" he said as he put his hoof on her forehead and felt she was a bit warm. "You seem to have a bit of a fever" the alicorn said as Sweetiebell struggled to form words.

"I just wanted t-to say thank you for saving me and my friends from that squid thingy" she said rubbing her left front leg with her right hoof.

"You have to thank me, you three are my friends, and that's what friends do for each other right?" he said in his higher pitched voice as he felt Sweetiebell hug him. "Really, it's no big deal" he chuckled as he hugged her back and then let her go as she ran off to her friends who were sitting on nearby barrels smiling and giggling. "Wonder what that was about?" he shrugged as Rainbowdash landed beside and looked down at him.

"Sup pipsqueak" she laughed as she rubbed her hoof in his red mane, messing it up.

"Oh hardy harhar, very funny Dash" he said fixing his mane. "You better be careful before I turn you into a little filly" he snickered as he flew up and back into his chair to go back to sleep. The cyan pegasus just rolled her eyes and walked over to Twilight who was still looking out at the water.

"That was some pretty fucked up shit back there" Rainbow said as she leaned over to rear railing like Twilight was doing.

"Sure was, at least this is the last jewel, so once we get it we can go home" she sighed. "I still can't believe we have been gone two and a half months" she said looking up at the sky to see pelicans flying by.

"LAND HO!" a unicorn up in the crow's nest yelled down to Pathfinder who was steering the ship with bandages around the top of his head. Twilight and her friends gathered at the front of the ship to see a large mass of land with jungles lining the shore line and several patches of desert beyond that.

"Great, more desert" Applejack sighed.

"Oh calm down Applejack, the country is mainly a mix of jungle and flatland with only few patches of desert in it. And besides, the elephant natives will be willing to guide us to the royal city" Firestorm said flying above all of them.

"Hold on there shorty" she said grabbing Firestorm by the tail and holding him upside down in front of her face. "Did you say city?" she said raising a brow to the irritated alicorn.

"Yes I did" he said crossing his front legs as blood rushed to his face.

"So no trapped temples, undead ponies, or psychopathic snakes trying to kill us?" she questioned.

"Nope, this one should be fairly easy, now would you be so kind as to PUT ME THE HELL DOWN!" he yelled as Applejack dropped him on his head on the deck of the ship. "Oww!' he groaned as he held his head in pain.

"Awe, you hurt the little guy" Pinkie said as Firestorm shot her a glare and she just laughed.

"Knock it off every pony, he may be in the form a kid now but he did save all of our lives back there" Fluttershy said as she picked him up with her wing and sat him on his hoofs.

"Thank you Fluttershy" Firestorm sighed as the ship was pulled to port by several skinny pegasi in ragged clothes.

"Why do they look so… you know" Rarity asked Firestorm.

"Starved, mistreated, weak?" he said to Rarity who just nodded as the ship came to a stop and dropped anchor. "In this country, the elephants treat pegasi like slaves. It makes me sick every time I come here and see this, but it is one of the conditions of the peace treaty I made with the elephants when I came here last when Trixie and Gilda took over Ponyville. They get to keep slavery, and they won't invade Equestria and start another war. I had to agree to this since we are still recovering from the last one, but that didn't mean I had to just ignore the pegasi's cries for help. So I went to several slave auctions and bought as many is I could afford and gave each one a certificate of freedom, showing that they had been bought and freed so the elephants couldn't recapture them and sell them again." Firestorm said as he walked down the ramp to the wooden dock with his friends behind him.

"That is just awful; such mistreatment of ponies should be banned" Rarity said stomping her hoof as they walked into the town and payed their docking fee. Applebloom and her friends as well as Blitz stayed behind this time to watch the ship, since most of the crew were pegasi.

"Why isn't Blitz coming with us?" Rainbowdash asked as they passed a group of pegasi who had their wings bound and metal collars around their necks with chains connecting them all together.

"Two reasons, one he is one of our best fighters and I want him to guard the ship and the crew, and two is that he feels very strong hatred towards slavery and would lash out at anyone who was selling slaves or mistreating them and I can't cover his ass in this form." Firestorm said as they came by what looked like an auction. "This is just sickening" he said as they walked right past the auction in a group.

"So why is the jewel in the royal city?" Twilight said trying to change the subject.

"Discord sent it there and a city was built around the altar after I took the jewel the first time, and the city grew and grew in size until a palace was built on top of the altar, which is where the royal family lives and rules the country. So hopefully the jewel is still there and hasn't been found yet and we can get it without a fight this time. Although we will have to sneak around the palace to get to the altar since the sultan's advisor Ivork, doesn't like me that much" he chuckled.

"Why are you worried about him? The sultan is the one in charge and I don't think the advisor could do anything to you as long as you are under the sultan's protection" Twilight said as they walked down the streets closer towards an elephant with a large flat saddle on his back.

"The sultan has fallen ill and is bedridden; the advisor is in charge until the sultan's son becomes ready to take power. He is a good kid and is against this slavery thing, which is why I hope he takes power soon, but he can't as long as the current reigning sultan is still alive, it doesn't matter what his medical condition is, until sultan Shatter Tusk passes, prince Silver Hide can't do anything but wait." Firestorm said as he tossed a bag of gold bits in front of the elephant with the saddle on his back who just looked down at the little alicorn.

"Where to?" the elephant asked as he bowed down the front half of his body so they could get on the saddle on his back which was large enough to hold up to 20 twenty ponies on it.

"To the Royal City" Rainbowdash said to the extremely large and muscular elephant who nodded as he picked up the bag of gold with his truck and put it in a pouch at his side and began to walk down a path into the jungle.

"The walk there is going to take awhile, rest up on the way there" the pachyderm suggested as Firestorm walked over and curled up next to Rainbowdash who had Toby slither out of her mane and curl up around Firestorm whom Rainbow held close to her chest.

"Now that is just adorable" Rarity whispered to herself as she began to drift off into sleep next to Applejack. Firestorm's eye twitched at hearing this but he just ignored it as he fell asleep in Rainbowdash's embrace.


	25. Welsome to the Jungle

Rainbowdash was the first to wake up; she looked up at the sky to see they were still moving, and at a rather slow pace. She turned her head down and was met by a large mass of fire like hair hitting her in the face. She spat a bit as some of it got in her mouth and she looked to see it was Firestorm's tail hitting her in the face. "If his tail is up here, then where did his head go?" she asked herself as she lifted her wing to see his head down between her back legs with his face buried in her breasts. Her face turned a bright shade of red as she pushed him off of her to see he was still asleep and snoring. She looked closer to see that his body had grown in size in the matter of hours that they had been asleep. "Only three days after he used that spell and he went from a child to his teenage form" she said looking down at his face to see it was similar to the one she fell in love with, but only younger and with a small cut at the inside of edge of his right brow.

"No Applejack, I won't want anymore fritters" he spoke in his sleep as he lie on his back with his leg twitching as Toby lied curled up next to him.

"That was a mighty fine nap" Applejack yawned as she sat up from the somewhat squishy leather floor of the saddle that she slept on. She took her hat off of her face and looked up to see it was about night time and that they had arrived in a grassy flatland area with only one or two trees here and there with a tropical tree line several miles ahead of them. "Night time already? How long were we out?" she asked as she looked over at her sleeping friends.

"I would say a good 9 hours" said the large elephant that just kept walking the same, easy speed as before.

"Damn, that long huh?" she sighed as she looked at the sleeping alicorn with tongue hanging from the side of his mouth as he slept. "Well some pony had a growth spurt" she chuckled as she put her tan hat on her head and trotted over to her friends and shook them awake.

"Five more minutes" Rarity groaned as the others yawned and stood up on the moving elephant's saddle. Twilight and Applejack just looked at each other and smiled as Applejack bent down and whispered something in Rarity's ear that made ear eyes open and for her to look around in a panic and give off a sigh of relief. "Not funny" she said as she fixed her hair and they all gathered around the sleeping Firestorm and looked at how he had changed in the 9 hours they were asleep.

"Um, what happened to him?" Twilight asked confused.

"I just woke up and he looked like that" Rainbowdash said as she looked down at his fairly built body as Toby slithered across his chest, causing him to laugh in his sleep. The laugh he let out sounded like something a homicidal maniac would make.

"That is a rather off putting sound" Rarity said backing away from him a bit as he opened his eyes and looked up at five of the six mares looking down at him, as well as his pet snake who rubbed his head against his chin, causing him to smile.

"Well this is a pleasant sight to wake up to" he said in a somewhat deeper voice as he sat up and his wings stuck strait out from his back and didn't move. Fluttershy and Rainbowdash began to laugh but covered up their mouths with their hoofs as their faces turned red from holding in the laughter. "What's so funny?" Firestorm said clueless as he stood up with his wings still sticking strait out.

"Dude, that is just wrong" Rainbow snickered as Fluttershy fell over from laughing too hard.

"Umm, am I missing something here?" Twilight asked as Pinkie fell over and began to laugh as well. "Pinkie, do you know what they are laughing at?" she asked the laughing earth pony.

"Not a clue, it's just fun to laugh!" Pinkiepie said as she continued laughing.

"What the hell is so fucking funny?" Firestorm yelled.

"Dude, y-you got a freakin wing boner!" Rainbowdash managed to say over all of her laughter. Firestorm blushed and looked at his wings which were still sticking strait up. He forced his wings down and slowly back away from the laughing pegasi and after that there was a long and awkward pause.

"Well it looks like I have aged a bit into my teen form" Firestorm said looked at his now longer legs. "I even got the cut on my head from Tia's horn hitting above my eye" he chuckled as he rubbed the cut on his head with his hoof.

"Alright, end of the line" the large elephant said as he came to a stop at the tree line.

"This doesn't look like a royal city to me" Rarity said as she and the others got off of the elephants back.

"It isn't, the city is on the other side of the jungle. I would have taken you all the way to the city but they don't allow pegasi there, and if I am caught with you on my back, they might cut off my tusks and grind them into flour" the elephant shivered as he rubbed his long stained tusk. "And also I am not going into that jungle because of the Pigmy natives. Savage wild boars that will kill any of us elephants on sight, and they only thing they hate more than elephants, is ponies so I would recommend you watch yourself in there."

"Understood, you wait here for us to return in about 4 days time, got it?" Firestorm said as Toby slithered into his mane since he was able to fit now, but just barely, the back of his tail still hung out the side of Firestorm's hair.

"I won't forget" the elephant laughed as he sat down next to a tree and leaned against it, causing it to bend.

"He won't forget, how cliché" Firestorm chuckled as he felt a tug on his tail. He turned to see a shaking Fluttershy.

"Umm, did he say wild boars?" she said in a shaky voice.

"Yep, but don't worry Fluttershy, your friends are gonna be here to help you and protect you" he smiled as he jumped over some bushes and began to walk through the thick foliage.


	26. This Little Piggy Knows Black Magic

Twilight and her friends trudged through the muddy floor of the jungle with Firestorm leading the way through the dark of the jungle. Tropical birds let out their calls, filling the air with a high pitched wining sound. "How much longer to we have to walk through this muck?" Rarity wined.

"Not long hopefully, the last time I was here I just slept the whole way there" Firestorm said as he came to a stop at a large wooden pike with a pony skull on it and the eyes dried up inside the skull. "Well this is just unpleasant" he said as he buried the skull in the ground.

"What did that thing mean?" Fluttershy asked.

"It is a warning, telling us to not go any further" Firestorm said as he continued to walk forward.

"I thought you said we weren't supposed to go any further?" Applejack said.

"He isn't one to do what he is told" Rainbowdash said as she wiped her hoofs off on a nearby rock and decided to fly instead. Several minutes passed a rustling noise came from the bushes and what sounded like snorting.

"Does any pony else hear that?" Twilight said as she saw glowing red eyes looking at her from the bushes.

"Hear what?" Firestorm asked as a puff of air came from the trees behind him and he felt a sharp pain in his flank. "Son of a bitch!" he said in a slurred voice as he passed out face first into a mud puddle. 5 more puffs of air were heard and every pony else except Pinkie were unconscious with darts in their flanks.

"Come on guys, this is no time to be napping!" she said as she felt a pain in her flank. She looked to see a dart stuck in it and she pulled it out and spat it to the side. "Well that hurt" she said as the eyes in the bushes just looked at each other and shot 5 more darts into her butt, knocking her out cold. "Nighty night" she snored as 8 wild boars with bone necklaces and war paint on came out of the darkness and began to drag the ponies through the jungle by their tails.

"We caught tomorrow's breakfast!" one of them snorted as he pulled Rarity by her curly purple tail.

Twilight slowly came to and found herself tide to a tree beside Rainbowdash and Applejack. Across from her were Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie all tide to a tree as well still sleeping. She turned her gaze to the right to see Firestorm tide to a boulder on his stomach with his wings bound to his body as he snored. "What happened?" she groaned as she looked to see they were in a small village with huts made of elephant hide surrounding them and various animal bones hanging around as decorations. A large fire pit sat in the center of the small community as little piglets ran past them laughing as they kicked around what looked like a stomach filled with air.

"Why does my ass hurt?" Rainbow said as she came to and found she had been tied to a tree.

"It wasn't me this time" Firestorm yawned as he lied stretched out on the boulder. "Well it looks like morning already" he yawned as the sun peaked through the opening in the top of the tree line and hit him strait in the face.

"Have any of ya'll seen mah hat?" Applejack said now awake as she looked around for her cowboy hat. She watched as a little wild piglet walked up to her with her hat on his head. He just looked at her and snorted before he put the hat back on her head. "Thank yah kindly" she said as the little pig licked his lips as he looked at the three bound mares.

"I don't like that look on his face" Twilight whispered to Rainbowdash.

"He looks kinda hungry" the cyan pegasus said nervously as a large razor back boar walked over and pushed the piglet away.

"No, you can't eat them yet, wait until the others wake up and we can all have breakfast" the large boar said with his mouth full of crooked, blood stained teeth. The piglet lowed his ears and walked away slowly while snorting something to himself.

"Did he say "eat us"?" Rarity shivered as she slowly came to.

"I did filthy pony, you are food for our village, and I am the butcher Sheetung, so I will be cutting you up and serving you too the chief and the rest of the village" he snorted as he walked over to Firestorm as pulled on the ropes that bound him. "Nice and tight" he said as the alicorn laughed.

"So you must be the infamous Pigmies that I have heard about, little pigs like you being able to scare large elephants is quite impressive" the alicorn said to the butcher who just shot him a dirty look.

"You call us little?" the boar laughed. "You are the smallest of this group of ponies, you have no right to call us little, and just for that, I am going to kill you first and serve you the chief myself" he smiled evilly as he looked over Firestorm's face.

"That is if you can keep me held down" Firestorm chuckled as the boar looked into his eyes and saw his irises turn red and the whites of his eyes turn black. "Toby, get daddy out of here" he laughed as the snake slithered from his mane and untied the ropes that bound him using his tail. The alicorn bolted free and pinned the boar to the ground and drilled his hoof into its left eye, causing blood to splatter on his face as the boar squealed in pain, causing other wild boars to rush to the scene and pointed spears at Firestorm, who was now in his enraged form.

"This is not going to end well" Twilight said as she felt the ropes around her loosen. She turned to see Toby untying her and her friends with his tail. "Good boy Toby, now go get Fluttershy and the others" she whispered to the cobra as they snuck away from the crowd of angry boars. Toby slithered through the plants and untied the other half of the group as Firestorm began to draw something in the mud in front of him, which looked like some sort of ritual circle.

"Let's get out of here" Rarity whispered as she carried Pinkie on her back as she and Fluttershy joined the rest of the group.

"We should wait here until Firestorm beats these wild pigs" Twilight said as the ritual circle that Firestorm drew began to glow and a long black pole came from it, which he grasped in his hoof and held over his shoulder.

"Toby, come here boy" he said as the cobra slithered through the crowd of boars which jumped at the sight of the snake. He slithered up one end of the black pole and wrapped himself tightly around the other end with mouth open and fangs showing.

"Death Cobra!" one of the boars said as they backed off him a bit.

"Time to have some fun" he smiled as hit one of the boars over the head with the end of the pole that Toby wasn't on, causing him to fall over with blood leaking from his snout. "Come on pork chops, surely you can do better than this" Firestorm said as he began to laugh like a maniac.

"Bind him!" a female voice said from the shadows. The vines hanging around began to move and formed a cocoon around Firestorm, to where only his head was free. Toby got off the end of the pole and slithered away into the grass to hide.

"It's the witch doctor" one of the boars said as a female pig walked into view. She was old and grey with a wooden mask over her face that only showed he grey snout that was lined with nose rings and her eyes which were a dark green.

"Don't waste your energy on dis one, normal weapons won't work on 'im" she said in an aged voice as Firestorm thrashed to get free.

"I'll cut your eyes out!" Firestorm yelled as he began to act more frantic then ever has before.

"You won't be going anywhere child, I need to study you" she said as the green vines wrapped around his face to keep him quiet.

"Shit, we have to help him!" Rainbow said as they hauled the cocoon deeper into the village towards a large hut made of wood with banana leaves as the roof.

"We should wait til night fall to sneak in and get him out" Twilight said holding back Rainbowdash. She calmed down and nodded as they walked further away from the village so they wouldn't be seen until nightfall.


	27. Rescue Mission

"Alright every pony, I am going to link our thoughts with a spell that will allow us to communicate quietly while sneaking around, ok?" Twilight said to her friends who had camouflaged colored paint on their faces. They all nodded and her horn began to glow a bright pink while causing each of their eyes to turn solid white for a moment. "Alright, that should work for about 40 minutes, so we need to get him out quickly" she whispered.

'This is stupid, there is no way her egghead spell worked' Rainbowdash thought to herself as Twilight shot her a glare. 'Oh shit I think she heard me!' she thought again.

"Yeah I heard you" she growled as Rainbow began to casually whistle in the dark of the jungle, trying to avoid eye contact with her. "Anyway, we are going to split up into 4 groups" Twilight said as she began to draw a map of the boar village. "We will take points on different parts of the perimeter, Rainbowdash and Fluttershy will take Toby to the residential looking area of the village to draw some attention away from the witch pig's hut by using Toby as a distraction. Fluttershy will send Toby into one of the huts with a family in it and scare them out causing a disturbance which will drive the warriors to investigate. Then, Applejack and Rarity will subdue the warriors by knocking them unconscious and dragging their bodies into the giant hole that Pinkie dug up." she said pointing at the dirt covered pink pony. "What comes next is tricky; Pinkie will have to lure the witch pig from her hut somehow so I can sneak in and grab Firestorm, and once we have him, we will all regroup here, got it?" she said as finished drawing lines through the map.

"Ah have a question" Applejack said raising her hoof in the air. "What happens if somethin' goes wrong?" she asked the purple unicorn.

"Well then I guess we are just gonna have to wing it" she shrugged as Applejack face hoofed.

"Sounds like a plan to me, let's get moving!" Rainbowdash said as Toby slithered into Fluttershy's mane as she and Rainbow flew silently through the air and landed behind a large hut made from elephant hide with elephant bones as the supports.

'Turning someone's corpse into a house, that is just wrong' Fluttershy thought with a look of rage on her face.

'Calm down Fluttershy, just send in Toby in there and scare the family inside' Rainbow thought to her. Fluttershy sighed a poked a hole in the dry, grey hide as Toby stuck his head from her mane. "Ok Toby, go in there and give them a good scare but please don't hurt any pony" she whispered to the snake that saluted her with his tail to show her he understood her. Toby slithered through the hole and onto the dirt flooring of the hut. He looked around and saw three little piglets sitting in a crib made of pony legs bones with their parents sitting down and eating some raw meat off the floor. Toby slithered through the shadows of the hut, making sure not to go into the light created by several lanterns filled with fireflies which gave off a orange-yellow glow. The little piglets looked tasty to the cobra but he remembered what Fluttershy told him and he shook his head and slithered into the crib and let out a loud hiss to get the parent's attention. The father pig who was black in color with several razor like hairs on his back and two large tusks looked over to see Toby's shadow on the wall in the crib with his young.

"Cobra!" he squealed as he and his wife ran over and picked up the three piglets who began to squeal and wine as their parents ran them outside, leaving Toby in the tent as they continued to squeal to get others attention.

Meanwhile in the witch's hut, Firestorm was still bound in the cocoon of vines as he sat in the corner of the wooden hut with his head free from the plants grip. "Once I get out of here I am going to cut you open and make you into a hat!" he laughed manically since he was still in his enraged form.

"Dat won't be happenin child" the witch pig laughed as she heard squeals from across the camp. A warrior peaked his head inside and began to speak.

"A death cobra has been found in one of the huts mistress, all guards are needed to safely get rid of it" he said looking at the smiling alicorn in the corner who had his tongue handing from the side of his mouth while showing his dagger-like teeth.

"Go ahead, I can handle dis one by me self" she said as she walked over to her alchemy table made from bones of various animals.

"Understood" the guard said as he ran away as fast as his little legs would take him as another boar then entered the hut. The boar that walked in had a bandage around his left eye which was stained with blood and a meat clever strapped to his back.

"Sheetung, what are you doing here child" the old witch said as she removed her wooden mask revealing her paint covered face as she sat the mask down on the table in front of her.

"I just came to watch what you do to this one" he said as he held the blade of the meat clever to his throat. This action did nothing but make Firestorm laugh even more, which made the wild boar even angrier. "Why you little whelp, I should cut out your tongue, see if you laugh then" he said as Firestorm stuck his tongue out at the boar causing his face to go red with anger.

"Am I getting you angry?" Firestorm chuckled as the butcher slammed the meat clever into the wall right beside Firestorm's face. "Shiny" Firestorm chuckled as he looked at his reflection in the blade.

"You are lucky the witch wants you alive for now" he snorted as he pulled the blade from the wall with his little black hoof. The pig sniffed the air and the expression on his face went from enraged to an expression of delight. "Truffles" he moaned as he walked out of the hut with drool coming from his mouth.

Pinkie sat in the bushes with a big stick in her hoofs as she waited for the witch lady to take the bait which was the truffles she had laid out. 'No pony can resist truffles, especially pigs!' she thought as Applejack dragged the unconscious bodies of the warriors into the bushes while Rarity sat on top of one of them filing her hoof. Sheetung drew closer to the truffles with a trail of drool behind him.

"There you are" he smiled as he felt a sharp blow to the head that made his eyes roll back in his head and his legs to give out as he collapsed to the ground.

'This doesn't look like a witch pig' Pinkie thought as she rested the stick over her shoulder with a confused look on her face. 'Um girls, I got the butcher and not the witch, I don't think she took the bait' she thought to the others. Twilight crawled under the witch's hut since it stood 2 feet off the ground and face hoofed at hearing this.

'Well we will just have to improvise from here on out' Twilight thought as Rainbowdash sat down thinking.

'I think I have an idea!' Rainbowdash thought as she grabbed a rock with her hoof and chucked it through the witch pig's window, causing several potion bottles to break. The witch hopped down from her stool and looked at the broken clay bottles and then at the laughing Firestorm.

"Looks like you got allot of cleaning up to do!" he laughed as he tiled forward and landed on his face on the wooden floor still laughing.

"You really are getting on my last nerves, I tink I will take your soul now instead of in the mornin'" she said as she grabbed a staff that the top of it was some fort of weird dream catcher with black feathers hanging from one side and a green orb in the center. Twilight crawled under where Firestorm was and her horn began to glow black as a circle of teeth in the form of a saw blade appeared and sawed around where Firestorm was lying.

"Bye bye" the alicorn laughed as he fell through the floor and was cut free by Twilight whom he quickly picked up with his magic and tossed into a bush and stood on top of as the witch pig was trying to figure out what had happened.

"What are you doing?" Twilight said as the alicorn who was only a bit smaller than her had her pinned to the ground while staring at her with his red eyes and his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

"Shush" he chuckled as the witch pig looked around outside and squinted as the rising sun shined in her eyes.

"What happened here?" she said looking around at the empty village while still looking for the alicorn. She went back inside and the two ponies in the bush sighed a breath of relief.

"Firestorm, could you let me up now?" Twilight said struggling to get free of the alicorn's hold.

"Now why would I want to do that?" he laughed as he licked the side of her neck causing her to turn brought red in the face. "You taste nice, and I haven't eaten since yesterday" he said licking his lips as Twilight swallowed out of fear as the sun began to slowly move it's light closer to the bush where they were hidden.

"W-what are you getting at?" she said afraid to know what he was referring to eating.

"I am talking about breakfast, and purple unicorn is on the menu" he said opening his mouth lined with razor sharp teeth.

'Some pony help me!' Twilight screamed in her mind as Firestorm moved his mouth closer to her throat. The light of the sun shone through the bush and hit Firestorm on the back right as his teeth pressed against Twilight's wind pipe. Steam came from where the light hit and he fell to the ground in pain as his body grew a little in size to where he was only 4 inches shorter than his original form. His mane grew in length and so did his tail, wings, and horn as Twilight sat up and looked at the alicorn changing.

"Twilight are you ok!" rarity called as she led the others to where Twilight and Firestorm were. Firestorm stood up, taller now then he was in his teenage form, showing that he had aged a bit into his young adult form, which would be about 20 years old. Rainbowdash looked to see teeth marks and a wet spot on Twilights neck and purple hair on Firestorms mouth.

"I am so sorry about that" he said in an even deeper voice then before, which was similar to his original sounding voice. "I forgot that I still hadn't mastered my enraged form when I was a teenager and I would sometime eat other ponies to get out of it" he said wiped his mouth and helping Twilight up as the witch walked out of her hut with some weird robes on and her mask one while still holding the staff in her hoof.

"Eat as in gobble them up?" Pinkie asked shaking as she looked to see Firestorm was the height of an average stallion in Ponyville.

"Well yes but…" he was cut off by a vine wrapping around his back leg and dragging him out into the open in front of the witch pig.

"Found you" she said seeing that Firestorm was no longer in his enraged form. "Now I can take your magical power" she snorted as she shot him with a blastoff green magic, sending up a cloud of dust.

"Firestorm!" Twilight and her friends screamed as they ran from the bushes out into the open.


	28. The Big City

Twilight shot a beam of magic at the witch pig but it was caught by the dream catcher on the end of her staff and appeared to be absorbed. The witch pointed the end of her staff at Twilight and shot the beam back but amplified it with her own magic. Rainbow pushed Twilight out of the way, causing them both to just narrowly dodge the blast. "It feels so good to be young again" a laughing voice said from the cloud of dust a few yards away from the witch pig.

"He survived that?" the witch said a bit surprised as the dust cleared and showed a clear red barrier around Firestorm who was in his enraged form again.

"Girls stand back, this one is mine" he smiled showing his sharpened teeth. He dropped the barrier and stood up as the witch lady shot another blast at him, only to have it blocked by a large skeletal hand coming from the ground. The hand lunged forward and balled into a fist, which quickly struck the witch pig, sending her flying into the wall of her hit, breaking several bones on impact.

"He seems different somehow" Rarity said as the stallion began to walk forward towards the witch pig.

"Child, if you tink you can beat me so easily, you are mistaken" the witch pig smiled as she slammed her staff in the ground, causing a large elephant tusk to shoot up from under Firestorm, piercing him through the mid section of his stomach and sending him flying into the air, leaving behind a black blood stain on the tip of the tusk as he fell down in front of Twilight and the others with a large hole in his stomach.

"Shit" Twilight said as her legs began to tremble.

"F-Firestorm" Rainbowdash stuttered as she nudged him with her hoof as black blood seeped from his stomach. She fell down and rested her head on his chest and began to cry as his lie on his back in a small puddle of blood.

"This just unbelievable" Fluttershy said as she knelt down to look at his wounds with tears in her eyes.

"YOU BITCH!" Twilight screamed as she charged the witch pig who was struggling to get to her feet. Twilight's horn glowed bright purple as she charged the boar, she shot a series of electrical charges at the pig, causing her to spasm and fall back down to the ground. Right as she was about to deliver the finishing blow, she heard sinister laughter from behind her.

"That hurt" Firestorm laughed as he dipped his hoof down into the black blood and looked at it. "Pretty" he chuckled as he stood to his feet and began to draw another ritual circle on the ground with his own blood. "Bring the pig over here" he told Twilight who was amazed he was still alive. She did what she was told and tossed the paralyzed pig to Firestorm with her magic, landing her in the middle of the circle Firestorm had drawn. "You do look tasty, little piggy" he chuckled as he licked his lips. "But sadly I need you alive for the moment" he sighed as his horn glowed red and black bands wrapped around the witch's body and pulled her into the ground inside the ritual circle and disappeared.

"How are you even alive partner?" Applejack said looking at his stomach to see the wound had closed completely. "What the hay?" she said confused.

"I shifted some of the bones in my body around to block the tusk from hitting any of my organs" Firestorm said as his eyes and teeth returned to normal.

"Nothin' you do surprises me anymore" Applejack chuckled as Rainbowdash hugged around Firestorm's neck.

"We best get moving to the city to get that jewel" Twilight said looking around at the destroyed village. "I can see why the elephants hate these guys so much" she said as they left the village and continued to walk through the jungle.

"Well on the bright side, at least I am closer to my original form" Firestorm chuckled.

"How old are you now anyway?" Rarity asked admiring his young and built body.

"About a year or two younger then you girls" he answered as he glanced back and caught her starring at him. "Only two more days and I will be back to normal" he sighed a sigh of relief at saying that. "I just want to go home so badly, I miss my sisters and my home" he said looking up at the sun in the sky.

"We all want to go home Sugarcube, you aren't the only one" Applejack said as she looked ahead to see what looked like what sand at the end of the tree line. "I think I see a clearing' up ahead" the orange earth pony said as she ran ahead of the rest of them. Applejack stood on the white sand and looked ahead of her to see a large city that appeared to have a circular design to it with large walls all around the perimeter. "Mother of mercy, that place is ten times the size of Manehatten" she said as her friends walked up behind her and looked in awe at the tremendous city.

"Ladies, may I present the royal city of Tuskany, Ivorystead" Firestorm said as he lead the way through the white, grainy sand. "Don't expect a warm welcome here girls, the elephants don't like ponies and might say very hurtful things but don't let it get to you" he said.

"Great, the locals are complete assholes" Fluttershy said as Toby slithered from her mane and into Firestorm's. Twilight and the others just looked at her strange since she had never used that kind of language before. "What? These elephants have been nothing but jerks to us, except that one that took us to the jungle, I can call them whatever I feel like, and if any of them so much as lay a hoof on any of us, I just might lose it!" she huffed as Rainbow just chuckled at this.

"Who knew Fluttershy had a badass side to her" she chuckled as she flew above Firestorm. They approached one of the gates of the city to find two elephant guards out front in full armor with large spears being held by their trunks. Each one had chainmail hanging from their backs and wrapped around their sides and steel plate on their heads as well as large golden spikes on the ends of each of their tusks.

"Halt! No free pegasi beyond this point" one of them said as they pointed their spears as Fluttershy whose eye was twitching and Rainbowdash who just pushed the sharp end of the spear away from her as Firestorm began to draw something in the white sand.

"How about we make a deal so you let us all in?" Firestorm said as he finished drawing the ritual on the ground in front of him.

"What kind of deal?" one of them said as Firestorm cut a small gash in his right hoof to let blood seep out and fill the grooves of ritual circle with the crimson liquid.

"A trade, you let us into the city and we give you pachyderms a witch from one of the wild boar tribes" he smiled as the two of them looked at each other and then laughed.

"Well if you can show us you have a witch, we will gladly let you in" the both laughed as the cut on Firestorm hoof closed up and the circle he drew began to glow as it spat out the witch pig from earlier who was still paralyzed. The two guards were silent as they looked at the witch pig whose feet twitched a bit. "They actually have one…and it is the witch pig from the western tribe to boot" one of the large guards said as he picked up the old pig with his trunk and put her in a cage he had hanging from his side. "Thank you for capturing this witch, but you still can't go in" he snickered as Fluttershy flew up right in his face with rage in her eyes.

"Listen here you" she said in a louder voice then she normally used "We had a deal, we gave you that witch and you were to let us inside the city, now if you don't honor that agreement, I am gonna rip both of your tusks out, and make you eat them while I kick your fucking ass!" she screamed at the elephant who fall on his back out of fear of the yellow pegasus. "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!" she yelled as the elephant nodded and whimpered. "Good, now would you please open the gates so me and my friends can enter?" she said in her normal, sweet voice as she stood on the sand beside her friends as the other guard pushed open the door and let them inside. "Thank you very much" she smiled as she flew inside the city with her friends right behind her as they guards closed the door.

"I think I wet myself" the guard said still lying on his back as the other laughed at him.


	29. Meeting the Prince

Twilight and her friends were in awe at how large the city was on the inside of the walls. Buildings made of stone lined the streets. Several clothes lines hung above their heads with large garments hanging from them. Elephants towered over the ponies as they walked the streets of the city, closer towards the inner ring of the city. Several elephants whispered amongst themselves as the friends passed by until a group of elephant children hurled a tomato at Rainbowdash, hitting her right in the side of the face. "Get out of here flying freaks!" one of them yelled as Rainbow wiped the tomato paste from her cheek.

"Why those little brats!" she growled.

"Calm yourself Dash, they are just children" Firestorm said holding her back with his wing.

"Well those kids need a good ass woopin'" the pegasus growled.

"Just calm down Rainbowdash, there is no need to do anything stupid" Twilight said catching another tomato with her magic and dropping it to the ground. "And besides, if we stay as a group they won't mess with us" the purple unicorn smiled as they continued to walk down the streets towards the palace. After a couple more minutes of walking, several younger looking elephants with large sticks in their trunks walked from the allies and surround the group of friends.

"You ponies have to pay a fee to get through" one of them said as the others laughed.

"Just move, we don't want any trouble" Firestorm sighed a bit irritated.

"Oh look here fellas, Mr. Alicorn thinks he can tell us what to do" a different elephant said laughing.

"Gentlemen please just move so we can be on our way" Rarity said.

"How about…no" one of them said as he swung his stick at Rarity only to have it blocked by a skeletal hand that Twilight had conjured up. The hand gripped the stick tightly and snapped it in two, causing the elephant that swung it to stagger.

"Last…chance" Firestorm said with his eye twitching. Toby heard what was going on and he didn't want his master to get hurt so the snake poked his head from the alicorn's fire like mane and opened his hood and hissed at the pack of elephants.

"Death Cobra!" one of them screamed as they all ran away from the group who sighed a sigh of relief.

"That's a relief, I am too tired for another fight" Twilight said as she smiled at the snake. "Thank you Toby for doing that" she said to the snake that closed his hood and went back in his master's mane. "Can we just hurry to the palace so we can get the jewel and get out of here?" she asked Firestorm.

"Sure, I had forgotten how much I hate this country" he said as he started walking again.

"Why do these guys hate the pegasi so much?" Pinkie asked.

"It's not so much hate as it is jealousy" he said.

"Why would they be jealous of us?" Fluttershy asked.

"Your ability to fly" he answered. "The elephants are a very prideful race, they hate it when they see something that some pony else can do that they can't" he said as they walked through another gate into the up district of the city, which was filled more expensive looking houses.

"Is that why they imprison some of us and make us slaves?" Rainbow asked as condescending glares were shot at them by some of the upper class elephants that wore more regal outfits and jewelry.

"Partially yes, the other reason is that pegasi can control weather here in Tuskany, and if they control the pegasi, they control the weather. This place just makes me sick, and I hope that Silver Hide takes over soon so he can end this bullshit" Firestorm said gritting his teeth.

"Let's just try to stay focused here, alright every pony?" Twilight said trying to ease the tension.

"Twi is right ya'll, let's not get side tracked with this country's screwed up politics" Applejack added. Firestorm calmed down and the rest of the walk to the main entrance of palace was very quiet. Twilight and her friends looked up at the large white palace with several elephant guards on different balconies. The outer walls appeared to marble with gold trimming between each plate. On the top of the main part of the palace was a large golden dome with a small opening at the top which a spiked fence was built around. The courtyard was large and grassy with several tropical trees planted near a fountain made of white marble.

"Long time, no see Firestorm" a voice said from somewhere. The girls looked around and saw an elephant on the balcony above them. He was medium in size and appeared to be in his early twenties. His hide was a bright silver color and both of his long tusks were polished white as the marble the castle was made off. He wore a bright red turban which was tightly wrapped around his head. In the center of it was a large emerald with a red feather sticking out the top of it. He also wore a sleeveless red vest with golden trimming around the edges and a meditating elephant stitched into the back of it. "What are you doing back in Tuskany? Oh wait, let me come down to you" he said in a deep, non-hostile voice. The elephant disappeared through a door on the balcony and reappeared through the main door as he ran down to Firestorm who smiled at him.

"Prince Silver Hide, it is good to see you again my friend" the alicorn smiled as he bumped hooves with the large pachyderm. "How is your old man doing?" he asked.

"Still in his bed, he has gone into some sort of coma and has been in it for some time now" he sighed. "Ivork is still a huge pain, he is all "regulations this and regulations that" or "don't do that Silver Hide" and "I'm in charge Silver Hide, listen to what I say"" he said in a voice that sounded like he was obviously mocking Ivork. "But the worst part is that he has been bringing in more and more slaves from neighboring countries, I can't wait till I take power so I can end this crap" he said looking down at Firestorm to see he looked different.

"Ahem" Twilight coughed.

"Oh sorry, Silver Hide I would like you to meet my friends" he said pointing his hoof at the group of mares. "This here is my sister's prized pupil Twilight Sparkle" he said pointing at the purple unicorn who bowed to the elephant. "This is Pinkie Pie, she hosts the best parties in all of Equestria" he said pointing at the pink pony who was bouncing up and down. "This is Rarity, a fashion designer from Ponyville and mighty good one I might say" he said pointing at Rarity who just flipped her mane and smiled. "This is Applejack, one of the Apple family and one of the owners of Sweet Apple Acers" he said pointing at the earth pony who just tipped her hat. "And this is Fluttershy, she was one of the chief medics in the Equestrian Hell War" he said pointing to the pegasus who his behind Rainbowdash.

"And this must be Rainbowdash" the prince chuckled.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Firestorm asked confused.

"You wouldn't quit talking about her on your last visit here" he said.

"Oh yeah" he said pondering something.

"Well come on inside, you all must be tired from your journey here" Silver Hide said leading them inside the main door of the palace. The inside was just as beautiful as the outside with paintings and banner decorating the polished walls. "So why did you come all this way Firestorm?" the prince asked as he sat down on a nearby pillow chair.

"Well I came to uh, check on your father and talk to him about something very important" Firestorm said nervously as he hadn't thought up a decent reason for why he would be here.

"Well if you can wake him up, you are more than welcome to, but that will have to wait until morning, I will have one of the guards show you to the guest room" he said as he tapped his hoofs together and a scrawny guard who's helmet barely fit him walked over.

"Yes sir?" he said.

"Yes, could you show my friends here where they will be staying for tonight?" he said as the guard saluted with his trunk and led the group up a series of stairs and into a large room with one massive bed on it.

"Why is there only one bed?" Rarity asked.

"Guess we have to share it" Rainbowdash said as she clopped her hoofs off and fell down near the center of the bed and Firestorm dove down beside her.

"Fine, but don't you two do nothin' while we are asleep" Applejack said tossing her hat on one of the posts at the end of the bed as she crawled in beside Rainbowdash and closed her eyes as the cyan pegasus held close to Firestorm.

"We need to rest up as much as we can before we sneak around to find the jewel tonight" Twilight said as she crawled in on the other side of Firestorm and faced away from him with her back pressed against his. Fluttershy timidly crawled in beside Applejack as Rarity fell asleep next to Twilight while Pinkie squeezed in between Applejack and Rainbow, who was still wrapped around Firestorm who was resting his head on top of hers as all over them slept under the green covers.

"Nighty night every pony!' Pinkie said as she passed out and began to snore.


	30. Crooked Officials

Twilight was the first awake that night, she slowly opened her eyes to see a mass of black hair on her face. She sniffed it and found it smelt like ash from an extinguished camp fire. "That's an interesting smell" she whispered to herself as she sat up in the large bed and looked out the windows to see the moon in the sky, hanging over the city and the desert of white sand, giving off an ominous glow. "Night time, better wake every pony up" she said shaking the sleeping alicorn beside her, who was holding tightly to Rainbowdash with his black hair hanging over his eyes.

"Ugh, fine" Firestorm groaned as his hair began to flicker from black to bright red as it slowly began to rise up in its spiked, sort of blown back form. "Toby, wake up boy" he said in a soft voice as the snake peaked its head from his mane and yawned, letting his tongue flail around in the air a bit. "Wake the others up Twilight, I gotta do something real quick" Firestorm yawned as he flew from the bed and sat down in the middle of the floor. He used his magic to pick up a nearby piece of charcoal from the unlit fireplace.

"Girls, time to wake up" Twilight said as she heard scratching on the marble floor. Twilight grew irritated as all of them just ignored her. Twilight grabbed the edge of the mattress with her front hooves and flipped it, causing her friends to fall out into a pile of covers and expensive pillows. They all groaned as they threw the green covers of them and slowly stood their feet.

"That was a rather rude wakeup call" Rarity said rubbing the crust from her eyes.

"Keep it down girls, we don't want to wake the elephants" Twilight whispered as a bright flash came from where Firestorm was sitting. She turned her head to see the alicorn in the center of a ritual circle he had drawn in charcoal. He sat with a metal lock box in his hoofs and a black saddle bag on his back. He put the box in the right pouch and locked it shut with a key he quickly proceeded to swallow. "Um, eww" Twilight shivered as Firestorm stretched his wings.

"OK girls, follow me and stay hidden, we don't want any unnecessary bloodshed" Firestorm said as he burnt the lock on the large door to their room off. He gently pushed open the door and looked both ways down the unlit hallway and motioned for the others to follow him.

"Do you even know where we are supposed to go?" Rainbowdash whispered.

"Of course I do…sort of" he said as the came to break in the hallway.

"Which way do we go?" Twilight whispered.

"Left I think" he said as the group crept down the left hallway which had red banners hanging from the walls.

"You don't seem to sure about where you're leadin' us Sugarcube" Applejack said as she saw an opening at the end of the hallway which led into a large, beautiful garden with a little pond in the center with a small, flat rock in the center of the pond.

"It's so beautiful here" Fluttershy said as they walked through the thick grass.

"This is the place" Firestorm said as he flew over to the flat rock in the center of the pond. As the other ponies looked at the beautiful and exotic plants and birds that filled the garden, he blew some dust from the rock and revealed a hoof shaped key hole. He put in his front left hoof into the hole which shot a needle into the soft part of his hoof, taking some blood. He pulled his bleeding hoof from the keyhole and several loud thuds were heard as something began to rise from the water in front of Firestorm. A white, stone birdbath rose up from the water and Firestorm flew over to it and his eyes went wide at what was inside it.

"What's wrong?" Twilight said teleporting over beside him to see that the fountain was empty.

"H-How can this be?" Firestorm said holding his head between his hooves. "It should have been right here, someone must have found it, but it takes an extremely powerful level of magic to open the lock, no pony other than me, Twilight and my sisters should be able to open this!" he said said holding his head between his hooves still.

"No pony, but what about an elephant?" Pinkie said.

"Why would you say that?" Firestorm asked as he looked up to see the pink pony pointing at a large aged elephant. His tusks where stained yellow with cracks in several parts of them. His hide was wrinkly and a bit loose in some parts. He wore a tightly wrapped purple turban with a bright green gem in the center. One of his eyes was fogged over with a large scar going across it. He wore a sleeveless blue vest with golden trimming all around it and from his chin hung a short, white beard. He held in his trunk a long wooden staff with a glowing purple jewel in the end of it. "Oh shit, Ivork how did you get your hoofs on that!" Firestorm yelled at the old pachyderm while pointing at the staff with the jewel of corruption on the end of it.

"Interesting story actually, your last visit you talked to the sultan about how the pony spirit of destruction used 5 of the six jewels of destruction to fight you and they disappeared after you beat him. I remember hearing rumors that the origin of the jewel of corruption being in the sacred oasis here in the palace" he chuckled as two guards walked up from behind him and pointed spears at Twilight and her friends.

"But did you get it? It takes unicorn or alicorn magic to unlock the seal on the shrine" Firestorm said as several ominous clouds floated in front of the moon, blocking out some of its light.

"I took some of your blood during your last visit here to open the seal while you were sleeping" he chuckled as he tapped the staff on the ground, causing the grass to grow in length and wrap around Twilight and her friends, restricting their movement. "But I suppose since you are going to die know I should tell you what my full plan is, it's not like you can do anything about it" the old elephant said. "The sultan died shortly after you left, but I put him in a form of stasis so he wouldn't die completely and his brat of a son wouldn't be able to take power and end this profitable slavery business. Since the sultan was in no shape to rule, I had to take over which is when my plan started to take full effect. I planned on killing the sultan's child so I would be permanent ruler of Tuskany, but then you ponies showed up right before I could poison him. And since you are here I couldn't exactly kill Silver Hide at the moment but I grew impatient so I planned on poisoning all of your breakfast but I didn't suspect you had come here looking for the jewel of corruption and sneak out during the night to retrieve it but fortunately I took it before you did. So now my whole plan is out of order so I guess I will have to just kill you right here and say you were mauled by boars that snuck into the palace before we could save you" the old elephant said raising the staff to smash Firestorm but he was stopped halfway by a large arrow piercing the hide on the side of his head, causing him to stagger as he pulled out the arrow with his trunk.

"Bout time you showed up" Firestorm said to himself as a twinkle came from the cloud in front of the moon and two more arrows shot forward and pierced all the way through the heads of the guards, causing them to drop dead in a puddle of their own blood.

"What in the name of Celestia?" Twilight said extremely confused.

On the cloud in the distance sat Pathfinder who had a pair of high powered binoculars in his hoofs, and Blitz who was lying down prone with a crossbow with a strange device on the underside of it which was giving off a high pitched sound only he could hear. "All shots confirmed, two targets down, one still standing" Pathfinder said to the dark blue pegasus who loaded the powerful crossbow with another bolt and then put his right hoof in front of the trigger which lacked a trigger guard so he would be able to shoot it.

"Should I take another shot at the one still standing?" Blitz asked as the device on the bottom of the crossbow shot out a high pitched sound towards the garden, letting him sense where everything was.

"Negative, hold fire and wait for further orders, this one is too powerful for Tinker's weapon to work on him" Pathfinder said as he and Blitz floated away on the cloud to the other side of the palace.

"Thank you fellas, I can take things from here" Firestorm said as the others just looked around in extreme confusion at what was happening.

"Da Fuck?" Rainbowdash said confused.


	31. Reconstructing the Crown

"Ok, what in tarnation is goin' on here!?" Applejack yelled as she struggled to get free from the grass that was binding her.

"I had Blitz and Pathfinder fly here during the night with the sonic crossbow Tinker made, and a cloud to use as cover in case things got messy" Firestorm said as Toby slithered out of his mane and tried to break the plants that bound his master.

"Sonic crossbow?" Twilight said confused as Ivork as struggling to stop the bleeding in his head.

"It is a crossbow sniper with a supersonic sound emitter hooked up to it. The sound emitter shoots out a high-pitched noise that can travel long distances without being heard by any pony without them having heightened hearing abilities like Dash's brother" Firestorm said as the grass that bound him began to turn a tan color as smoke rose from it.

"So Blitz uses the high pitched sound to sense where stuff is at a distance so he can shoot it" Rainbowdash said as the grass around Firestorm burnt to a crisp and Ivork managed to stop the bleeding in his head.

"Bingo" Firestorm said as he wiped the grass stains from his legs.

"You ponies are so bothersome, I am just going to kill you and get this over with" Ivork said breathing heavily as his vision blurred a bit.

"Looks like old age has caught up with you Ivork, and losing that much blood has also taken its affect on you old timer" he chuckled as Ivork fell to his knees, holding himself up with the staff in his trunk. "Just give me the jewel and I won't have to get physical" Firestorm said holding out his hoof.

"Over my dead body" the elephant growled as the grass that bound Twilight and her friends retracted back into the ground, letting the mares go.

"I think that can be arranged" a voice said from behind Ivork. Firestorm looked over the elephant to see Prince Silver Hide standing there with a large sword in his trunk.

"Y-your highness, I was just…" he was cut off by a stabbing pain in his back leg.

"I don't want to hear any of you lies Ivork" Silver Hide said as he walked over to the fallen elephant. "I heard everything through my bedroom window" he said pointing his hoof to the window right above the garden. "You kept my father trapped in this world so he couldn't pass on to the next live just so you could stay in power? And you planned to kill me to permanently keep your power? I should kill you right here just for your treason" Silver hide said angrily as he pressed the blade against the old elephants throat.

"A brat like you doesn't deserve to rule, you wanted to ban the slavery trade which would throw the country's economy in the toilet and put us out hundreds of thousands of workers." He coughed.

"Maybe in the next life you will see the error of your ways" Silver hide said as he raised the blade and slashed the throat of Ivork, who bleed out in minutes and lied down dead in a pool of his own blood. The staff that he held in his trunk fell to the ground and the jewel at the top rolled out and over towards Firestorm who picked it up and looked at his reflection in it.

"Such a small item being able to cause so much pain is just unbelievable" Firestorm said as he turned his head straight up and began to regurgitate something.

"How revolting" Rarity said covering her eyes. Firestorm continued to cough up something and a small black key fell from his mouth, covered in stomach juices.

"I think I'm gonna be sick" Applejack said holding her stomach as Firestorm picked up the key with his magic and unlocked his saddle bag and pulled out the small metal lockbox inside.

"What is that?" Silver Hide asked Twilight.

"That is the reason we left Equestria, the jewels of destruction, the most evil magical artifacts in existence. Each one was very difficult to obtain and now that he has all of them, he is going to remake something he lost long ago" Twilight spoke as Firestorm sat the 6 six jewels on the ground in front of him as he began to mumble something in an old language long forgotten by most.

"Remake what exactly?" the elephant asked as several guards finally showed up since they heard the sound of fighting.

"Just watch your highness, you will see soon enough" Twilight smiled as the jewels began to float and spin rapidly around Firestorm, creating a bright purple ring around him. The ring grew smaller and smaller and it soon fazed into his body, causing his coat to turn a bright white for a moment. Three curved, flat spike came from the top of his head. The middle one had a bright red jewel cut into the shape of a diamond in the center of it, the spikes resembled golden flames as the crown began to fully form.

"A crown?" Silver hide said as the circular crown rested perfectly on Firestorm's head for a perfect fit. "You went through all this trouble for a crown?" Silver Hide laughed as Firestorm looked over at him.

"Speaking of crowns, I think it might be time for you to take yours, Sultan Silver Hide" Firestorm chuckled as Dash walked over beside him and touched the golden crown on his head with her hoof.

"Awesome" she said as Firestorm picked up Ivork's body with his magic and buried it in the ground of the garden.

"After everything he has done, you still think he deserved a burial?" Silver Hide questioned as they all walked back inside the palace.

"It wasn't entirely his fault, the jewel he found was the jewel of corruption, it poisons the mind with lust for power" Firestorm chuckled as the sun began to rise over the city.

"Well at least we can finally go home now" Twilight said.

"Yeah, I miss Big Mac and Granny Smith" Applejack added.

"I still have one thing I need to do before we leave" Firestorm said as he and Silver Hide walked into a large bedroom with an old elephant hooked up to a bunch of machines lying on a bed.

"What are they doing?" Rainbow said peaking through the door with her friends beside her.

"You ready?" Firestorm said to Silver Hide who had a tear in his eye.

"I just can't believe it has to end like this" Silver hide said as he pulled the main plug on the live support machines hooked up to the old elephant. "Rest in peace now father" he said wiping a tea from his eye with his trunk.

"Girls, I think he just pulled the plug on his dad" Rainbow whispered. Twilight and the others had a look of shock on their faces as Firestorm looked down at the body as if something were leaving it. "Twilight, what is Firestorm doing?" Rainbow asked as the alicorn stuck out his hoof as if he were touching something in the air. Firestorm was actually pressing his hoof against Shatter Tusks' soul's forehead, leaving behind a bright blue hoof print on his forehead.

"Rest in peace Shatter Tusk" he said as he watched the soul of the elephant sultan fade with a peaceful look across his face.

"Your boyfriend is an odd one Dash" Applejack said.

"You will see him again one day Silver Hide, I promise he will be waiting for you in the Underearth" Firestorm smiled as he used his magic to pull the sheets over the face of the dead elephant. "Besides, you are sultan now, you need to look tough for your people when you address them this evening about recent events" Firestorm said as he left the room.

"So when are we going home?" Rainbow asked.

"Soon Dashy, soon" Firestorm chuckled as he looked at the rising sun.


	32. Homecoming

_Firestorm's Log, Final entry,_

_Soon after the death of sultan Shatter Tusk, prince Silver Hide was sworn in as sultan of Tuskany and banned the slave trade in his country. He made me a promise that he would never allow such a vile business to every show its ugly head in his nation ever again and all the pegasi slaves have been set free on top of that. Twilight and the others were relieved that they finally get to go home now and see their family and friends after being gone for 3 months. Dashy said that she had some sort of special surprise for me back at her house in Ponyville, whatever that could be, but she said it was to celebrate me finally returning to my normal size and age. Twilight wouldn't stop talking about how much of her studies she had to catch up with on our way back to the ship from Ivorystead. That mare needs to get her head out of those books and go out into the world more often, but with Tia as her teacher I can't blame her for being so studious._

_The rest of them seemed to be just as excited about heading back home. Rarity kept a picture of High Tide with her most of the walk back to the ship, and she seemed to be daydreaming about him as well. Something tells me that isn't going to sit well with Spike when he finds out. Applejack seemed to be anxious to get back to her farm to continue her job of apple bucking. Those earth ponies sure know how to get things done, even if they don't have wings like pegasi, or horns like unicorns, or both like me and my sisters, they are such a simple race. Speaking of earth ponies, Pinkie Pie, in spite of all the shit that we went through on this journey, she still managed to maintain her bubbly and happy personality, I can see why all the ponies in Ponyville like her so much. Maybe one day she could visit Canterlot and liven things up there as well, too many stuck up, rich ponies roaming around, it is so dull sometimes. One thing that really impresses me is how fond Toby is of Fluttershy, he normally very selective about who he will ride on but he tends to ride in her pink mane every chance that he gets. The yellow pegasus has taught me something on this journey, even though some pony may seem quiet and timid, that doesn't mean they won't go full out badass at some point._

_I still haven't found a suitable way to thank those little fillies that helped save all of our lives when we were boarded by those wolf pirates. Those three really got me out of a tight spot back then, maybe I could help them by helping them discover their special talents? Nah that wouldn't work, there wouldn't be a point in helping with something that needs to be done alone. Oh well, I am sure I will think of something when I get home to Canterlot. Anyway, this is my last entry for the rest of the voyage, maybe this adventure of ours will turn into some history lesson at some point?_

_On a personal note, I fell like something is wrong deep inside of me, like my enraged form seems to manifesting into something like…another soul. It is probably nothing, and if anything does happen, I am sure my friends will be there to help me. Although at night I keep having these dreams of an alicorn stallion with a pale color yellow coat and a dark blue mane that is the same style as mine and tail that is the same as well, his cutie mark is a demon skull with glowing red eyes and two large horns on top of it. His teeth are pointed and blood stained, and the one thing about him I will never forget are his eyes; black where the white should be and his irises, a piercing blood red with the desire to kill easy to see in them. Could this be the spirit of my enraged form? I guess only time will tell._

Twilight opened the door to Firestorm's room and saw him sitting at his desk writing in his leather journal with a red quill with his crown sitting down on the desk in front of him. "Come on Firestorm, we can see Equestria from here!" Twilight smiled as the alicorn put his crown back on his head and proceeded to stand from his chair. Rainbowdash peaked her head through the door with a large smile on her face.

"Come on dude, we are almost home!" she said doing a back flip in the air and flying back out to the front of the ship.

"Alright, Toby come here boy" he called to curled up snake in the corner. Toby raised his head from his little bed and slithered into his master's mane and coiled around his horn. "Let's go" he said as he put his journal in his saddle bag. He walked out on the main deck to see Twilight and her friends leaning on the edge of the ship, looking over to see an extremely large crowd of ponies waiting at the ports. It looked like all of Ponyville had come to see their return smell, as well as some of Canterlot's finest. Firestorm borrowed Pathfinder's telescope to see if he recognized any of the faces in the crowd. He looked through the lens and smiled and chuckled at what he saw. "Well I'll be damned, looks like every pony showed up to welcome us back, Tia and Luna seem to have come a long way to say hello as well" he chuckled as he gave the telescope back to his friend.

"Who else is there?" Twilight asked.

"You'll see" he smiled as several pegasi flew out and hooked themselves up to the ship to drag it into the docks. Once the ship was anchored and the ramp put down, guards had to hold back every pony from storming the ship to welcome back their friends.

"Firestorm, I hope we will be well paid for all that shit you put us through" Pathfinder called out to his captain who just smiled and nodded as his sisters landed in front of him and there was a long pause.

"Hey girls" he smiled as the light shown off his crown and his sisters grabbed him and pulled him in for a hug.

"We missed you so much baby brother" Luna sobbed.

"Don't cry Luna, I am home in one piece" Firestorm chuckled as he looked to see Applejack and her little sister hugging Big Mac and Granny Smith who were just overjoyed to see them. Rarity's parents stood in the crowd, pushing and shoving to see their daughters who had been gone for so long. Rarity ran over to them and tackled them into a hug.

"Mother, Father I missed you two so much" she smiled as a shadow fell over her. Rarity looked up to see Fancy Pants looking down at her smiling. The white unicorn quickly stood up and brushed herself off.

"Rarity, jolly good to se you and your friends made it home alright" the unicorn smiled. Meanwhile Twilight was standing beside Celestia talking to her about all that she had seen and learned on the journey until she felt a hoof rubbing the top of her head. She turned to see her older brother and her sister in law smiling at her with tears of joy in there eyes.

"Welcome back Twily" Shining Armor smiled as he pulled his little sister in for a hug.

"Hey big bro" she chuckled as Celestia smiled at them. Firestorm leaned against the railing of the ship and looked to his side to see Rainbowdash leaning beside him with a smile on her face as she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"You happy to be home?" she asked him as he looked down at his reflection in the swaying water.

"Yeah but still something just doesn't feel right to me" Firestorm said as he heard and deep, sinister laugh inside of his head. "No matter how much you deny me, I won't go away" a voice said in his head. Shut up, just SHUT UP!" Firestorm yell whispered as he held his head between his two front hoofs.

"Are you ok?" Dash asked as Toby rubbed his head against his master's cheek to try to make him feel better.

"Yeah I just…have a headache" he said as Blitz walked over to him and patted him on the back with his hoof.

"It's good to be home eh? I swear if I had to spend one more second in that sandy shit hole of a country called Tuskany I was gonna lose it" Blitz chuckled as his eye twitched a bit. He raised his ear to the sound of hoof steps coming up from behind the three of them. They all turned and faced a two pegasi, one mare and one stallion who were much older than they were, or at least looked. The mare had a cyan coat with a blue green and purple mane that hung down over one eye. Her eyes were a bright red and her tail was long like Rainbow's. The stallion was a dark blue with a red yellow and orange mane which was spike back and his tail was the same and cut short. His irises were a grey tint and he had a goatee that was the same color as his mane and tail. He wore glass with a square, solid black frame all around the lenses.

"Hello Rainbowdash, it's been quite awhile" the mare smiled at the rainbow haired mare across from her.

"Mom? Dad?" she said confused.

"So these are your parents?" Firestorm said as he looked over to where Blitz was standing to see had had vanished. "Where did he go?" the alicorn said looking around the ship for him.

"Is he alright?" Rainbow's father whispered to her daughter.

"He was right here, he must have snuck off when we weren't looking" Firestorm sighed as he looked at his girlfriends parents.

"Who?" Dash's mother asked.

"Never mind, I am sure he will turn up" he shrugged as Toby poked his head from Firestorms mane, causing Mr. and Mrs. Dash to jump out of fright. "Don't worry, he doesn't bite, at least not until I tell him" Firestorm laughed.

"Mom Dad, this is Firestorm" Rainbowdash said pointing to the red haired stallion. "The one I have been writing to you about" she said nudging him.

"So you are the lucky stallion that my little Rainbow has taken a liking to" Mr., Dash said as he circled Firestorm, looking him over.

"Oh dear, please don't do it honey" Mrs. Dash begged as she face hoofed.

"Well let me see just much of a stallion you are, we have a tradition that if you can take a buck from me, you get to date my daughter with my permission" Mr. Dash said as he lined up to buck Firestorm in the side. The dark blue pegasus slammed his hoofs into Firestorm's side, causing him to sway a bit but stay rooted to where he was standing. "Damn you are tough" he said patting Firestorm on the back as he limped over to his wife.

"Oh sweetie you threw your back out again didn't you?" Mrs. Dash said slamming her hoof on her husband's back, causing a pop noise and his back to straighten out. They all had a good laugh after that and after about an hour every pony began to head home. Twilight and her friends went back to Ponyville to continue with their average lives. The Canterlot ponies also returned to their royal city quite happy that their prince was home. Firestorm still felt conflicted inside, he was unsure whether or not to be worried that his enraged form seemed to be developing a soul and mind of its own. He shrugged it off, hoping he could suppress the monster, but for how long?"

**And that concludes another story of mine. Leave your reviews and I will have a new story up in no time. Any questions, feel free to PM me about them.**


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